Blacklight's Revival
by HunterXKiller87
Summary: A fic Im doingon the side, set in the hyperdevotion Noire universe. Basically what would it be like if the series had a little... viral surprise waiting for it? Might make a better summary later though.
1. Chapter 1

Gamarket…

A land where new games are released at an unrelenting pace. It is a great respite for all who love games.

Once ruled by one single deity, one sole Goddess, now this game-oriented world is ruled by four separate Nations, four Separate Goddesses known as 'CPUs'.

These Goddesses, revered by their followers, are:

The Lonely CPU, Black Heart. She presides over Lastation, the "Land of Black Regality".

The Royal CPU, Purple Heart. She presides over Planeptune, the "Land of Purple Progress".

The Volatile CPU, White Heart. She presides over Lowee, the "Land of White Purity".

The mature CPU, Green Heart. She presides over Leanbox, the "Land of Green Origins".

Each CPU aims to expand their Domain, gathering more feelings from the citizens and converting those feelings into power.

The four Nations and the four CPUs are in a constant struggle to increase their 'Shares' –

Their Global Clout…

* * *

Deep within one of Lastation's crossroads, a little something was going down…

"Hey, Noire!"

A small crowd of soldiers, each of them wearing form fitting military uniforms, stood behind a set of… colourful looking characters. These characters stood behind their apparent leader, though they are not relevant just yet. The one who is talking would be the one who spoke just now. The speaker, a small-looking girl in her preteen years, standing beside two other women, had yelled out whilst her arms had been thrown to her sides. She short lilac hair with bangs that reach down to her collarbone and purple eyes. In her hair, she wears white hair-clips in the shape of D-pads and around her neck is a choker that has a light blue D-pad symbol on it. She wore a choker around her neck with a light blue D-pad symbol on it and short-sleeved mini hoodie with blue and purple lining around the sleeves and the hood. The hoodie was closed by a button emblem with a large N in the middle and had two strings that looked like controller plugs. Underneath, she wore a dark purple dress lined with light purple, which zipped up from the front and had pockets on both sides along with white lining along the bottom. She sported light blue and white striped thigh high socks with frills at the tops, with her shoes being purple and blue with an N on them.

* * *

**PROFILE:**

**NAME - Neptune**

**TITLE - CPU**

**GENDER - Female**

**RACE – Goddess**

**HEIGHT – 146 cm (4'09")**

**WEIGHT – 38 kg (83.8 lbs)**

**SIZES – B73-W54-H76**

**CUP – A**

**WEAPON OF CHOICE – Broadswords, Katanas**

* * *

"Hey! Get outta here, stupid screen!" the girl known as Neptune, growled out in childish annoyance as she flailed her arms about, trying her best at dispersing what looked like a data sheet which appeared to her right from out of nowhere. "This isn't supposed to even be my thing, but the little jr of another Nep title!" Shaking her head to get her focus back into the game, Neptune levelled a hard stare at the person before her.

Said person scoffed in a haughty, prideful manner which only served to irritate the three women further, especially with how she held her arms over her chest in an 'I'm better than you' manner. If one took aside the general arrogance seeping forth from her in waves, one might see her as someone astonishingly beautiful. She looked like someone just hitting 20, with long, black hair with bangs over her forehead, tied into two waist-length, twin ponytails by two blue ribbons with black outlines. Her eyes, if one pushed aside the irritation to look at them, were crimson red. Her choice of clothing consisted of a dark grey tank top that exposed her stomach with a blue ribbon in the centre and a matching skirt with blue highlights on the pleats. On her arms, she wore detached sleeves that are open at the upper arm but attached by a black strap and buckle. Her leg wear consists of over the knee blue socks that were held in place by buckles on her thighs, and dark grey boots that matched her tank top. "Hmmm… You have arrived."

* * *

**PROFILE:**

**NAME - Noire**

**TITLE - CPU**

**GENDER - Female**

**RACE - Goddess**

**HEIGHT - 158 cm (5'02")**

**WEIGHT - 43 kg (94.8 lbs)**

**SIZES - B83-W56-H82**

**CUP - C**

**WEAPON - Short Swords**

* * *

Unlike Neptune however, when the same kind of screen that appeared before, did the same with Noire, she simply backhanded it as if it were no big deal. It was not really, not for her when she had gotten so close to obtaining her ultimate goal. All she had to do now would be to simply deal with these idiots in front of her and all would be set. One could not blame her for feeling as smug and vindictive as she did right now. Crossing her arms under her chest again, Noire took a few confident strides forwards, looking at each of the people before her with no small amount of contempt. A mocking chuckle escaped her lips, during which Noire tilted her head downwards with her eyes closed, before she lifted it up high as if to look down on them. "Do you SERIOUSLY think you can beat us? Blanc, Vert, Neptune?"

Standing before her, Neptune and the other two women all glared at Noire in their own ways. The purple-wearing Neptune glared like that of a child not getting their way with their parents. "Well, YEAH!" Neptune yelled, stomping her feet repeatedly on the ground in a manner similar to someone vehemently denying a possibility that could happen. "We're not going to lose, so you're gonna get a thorough beating!"

After Neptune's response, the woman to her left spoke in a soft, yet calm and mature-sounding voice, although compared to Neptune it didn't take much to consider her a mature person. "The Hawk… shall fall…!" she proclaimed. This girl looked to be around a few ages Neptune's senior, with a petite framework which proved slightly superior to her. For hair, she sported a bob of brown hair which reached her chin, framing her face with her bangs. Her eyes had this bluish tint to them. For clothes, this girl (whom Noire had addressed as 'Blanc') wore what looked to be a shrine maiden-like outfit. The shirt had this dark brown colour, with white sleeves that had red lining. Attached to the sleeves were these hanafuda cards. In the lower part of her shirt, there lay a blue orb surrounded with red strings that formed a cross pattern. The strings also carried two bells. Her red skirt adorned itself with stars that look like leaves. She wore a red and white hat on top of her head, with the company of a flower necklace, a black and white bead bracelet, white socks that run up to her thighs, and slippers decorated with a red ribbon and flower.

* * *

**PROFILE:**

**NAME - Blanc**

**TITLE - CPU**

**GENDER - Female**

**RACE - Goddess**

**HEIGHT - 144cm**

**WEIGHT - 36kg**

**SIZES - B71-W53-H77**

**CUP - A**

**WEAPON - Hammers**

* * *

A tick mark formed over her head when she saw the screen appear before her, especially when she saw certain… aspects that it presented. "I'm gonna smash whoever pulled this shit into the story…" she muttered under her breath through gritted teeth, resembling a volcano about to erupt before punching the screen into pieces. She then refocused her anger into the current situation at hand, though it was not as if it was any better for them. As for facial expressions, she did not look too pleased with the situation, though it did not look like she would be backing down from the inevitable conflict, same with the sole other member of the four.

Said person put her hand on the side of her cheek whilst tilting her head, a sigh expression immense fatigue with the situation escaping from her lips. Like this situation had happened so many times before in the past, that she had no longer any interest in it but still kept doing it anyways. "Heavens, Noire." She began, aiming a condescending smile towards her whilst her eyes shined with both anger, and annoyance with the blackette. "You are quite troublesome."

This woman can be as such, since she looked to be the tallest of the four with the most… adult-like body to boost. The woman had a long mass of blonde hair, practically reaching her backside, which had bangs that framed her heart shaped face, with deep blue almost sad looking blue eyes. For clothing, she wore a green, revealing dress with black lining that ran down to her upper ankle. The dress had a high slit, separating the dress area into two cloths showing off the woman's legs. There were black lines, which ran from below her chest to near the bottom of the front cloth. The backcloth had a jagged edge to it, decorated with two light green outlines and x-markings. On her neck was a cloth decorated with a green X button and four green jewels. At the waist were two green buttons, which held two black straps that acted as a belt, and a teal coloured sash. She wore on her feet, a pair of black high heels, decorated with a green button, held with black straps that reach her upper ankle to make them somewhat resemble ballerina footwear.

* * *

**PROFILE:**

**NAME - Vert**

**TITLE - CPU**

**GENDER - Female**

**RACE - Goddess**

**HEIGHT - 163cm**

**WEIGHT - 48kg**

**SIZES - B93-W61-H87**

**CUP - F**

**WEAPON – Spears**

* * *

"Ufufufufu, looks like another one recognizes me as the BUSTIEST CPU in Gamarket, how grand…" The woman proclaimed, smiling with a hand over her lips as a giggle escaped her throat. She practically basked in the salty stares aimed at her following her statement, and even took a moment to admire the sizes she had thanks to her screen before finally shooing it away. Although the prideful smirk on her lips remained as she stared at Noire who rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Alright Noire, since we've come all this way, shouldn't you entertain us? We're guests after all."

In response to this comment, Noire huffed as she rolled her eyes once more. "Well, okay then…" she began, her tone deepening as a threatening aura gradually emerged from her being. It caused the atmosphere, which had already become tenser than a strained rope, to ignite into a searing blaze from the killing intent that mixed in with it. She bent her body forwards with one leg behind the other, her eyes closed before she opened them, revealing them to have changed. Instead of being crimson, she now had teal coloured eyes, sporting pure white power button symbols. "You're going to FAIL though…!"

At that moment, Noire's form briefly emitted a white light, shielding her form from view. This lasted only a few seconds though, and when it died down her entire appearance had changed. Her hair, once black, became white as snow, held in the same ponytail style as her human form but with two grey mechanical pieces of armour with black outlines instead of ribbons. Her clothes changed too, becoming a predominantly grey one-piece swimsuit, but it had black lines going up the sides and middle, where it split into a V shape whilst two straps connected the top parts (which went over her breasts), to a mechanical collar-like section. Her arms sported detached black sleeves with grey trims and outlines, with a mechanical armband on her biceps. Her arms also had various grey armour plates over the sleeves, with a wristband over her wrists and matching black and grey gloves. Her legwear consisted of grey mechanical-looking stockings with black sections over the thighs and knees, with metal anklets around her ankles and ending in high-heeled joker style feet. From her back, there were these three pronged mechanical-looking plane wings, which had their own turbines installed into them. Several armour pieces floated around her waist too, with some being near her feet as well. In her hands was one large great sword. It easily looked longer than she was tall with a grey mechanical design to it, whilst it sported a glowing blue edge and backedge, with its tip diagonal and the blade sporting a rectangular shape. It had a circular guard to protect the hands from being hit thus disarming her.

Seeing that Noire had turned into this form right off the bat, each of the CPUs did the same thing with their faces each reflecting the seriousness of the situation. "I'm really gonna get… serious now!" Neptune would be the first to act, hopping into the air as she began to glow with a bright light similar to the one Noire had used to transform into her current self. By the time that it died down, a new figure replaced Neptune, though Noire knew that it remained as just another form she took just like herself and the other two. In this form, Neptune's hair changed into this darker purple colour, shaped into twin tails that almost reached her feet and bright blue eyes with white pupils in the shape of power signs. She Wore black hair clips with glowing blue D-Pad shapes on them, and a black body suit with purple and blue lining all around the torso and arms. The middle of the torso had purple mesh, allowing a vague vertical view of her stomach. She also wore thigh high stockings with octagon patterns on the side at the very top; one filled it with purple and another just a white outline. These stockings ended in large, mechanical feet with a black and purple colour scheme going for them. Behind her back, floated a set of wings as well, numbering in three pairs of 3 with the top ones being the longest and the bottom ones the shortest. More armour pieces floated around her also, whilst in her hands was a large, futuristic-looking Katana, which had a mostly black colour scheme, but with purple highlights especially around the blade's edge.

"I'll show you what we're made of."

"You'll bear witness, to just how strong we can be!"

Following Neptune's example, both Blanc and Vert also transformed via the same light. By the time it died down, two different forms of the same people took their places, floating before the also floating Noire and Neptune. The first one would be Blanc, as in this form she had the appearance of a young girl with a petite and slim figure. Her eyes shone a crimson red with the same power button symbols, and her skin seemed very fair. Her hair resembled a sky-blue colour; kept mostly free, of short length, barring her bangs, which reached down to her stomach. Her attire consisted of a tight battle-suit, which was mainly white and had minor touches of red lining. The top itself appeared as a swimsuit-like armour, its sleeves detached whilst reaching all the way to her shoulders, with a pair of gauntlets being equipped on both of them, and mechanical like devices connecting the joint (elbow-forearm) of the sleeve. Several armour pieces floated around her for defensive purposes whilst behind her, would be some diamond shaped yellow wings. In her hands, there lay a mostly white futuristic looking Axe, held in two hands but with red areas here and there.

For Vert, in her other form she had her hair change from a blonde mass which fell down, to a single green Ponytail which fell to her backside, her bangs still framing her face though. Her eyes changed from a blue to an athemyst colour with white power button symbols too. For clothing, in this form Vert wore a black one-piece bodysuit, one that showed off her inner thighs, stomach and nearly all of her torso including her breasts. Everything else below the neck remained concealed by the bodysuit, with a mechanical design added in. Not to mention the sharp wings of matching black and green colour schemes that floated behind her with similarly coloured armour pieces. For a weapon, she wielded a black and green futuristic looking Spear, not that different from her human form honestly.

With the four Girls transformed into these… alternate states, their battle begun.

The first to move did not happen to be Noire; instead, that honour belonged to the other three girls. In a single moment, the three acted, with three bursts of wind erupting from where they had once stood. None of the onlookers managed to perceive how they moved, only that they did, thanks to them being too fast for the naked eye to perceive. Each of them thrusted their weapons at her after instantly closing the distance between them, aiming towards her torso area.

"Hmph!"

However, Noire had predicted they would do this, as she raised her sword into a horizontal position before her form and put her hand on the back of the blade. She then pushed her body forwards as her opponent's weapons sailed towards their target. This resulted in the blade having some of the impact force thrust upon it by the intruding weapons shifted down her arm, though Noire held her ground thanks to bending her legs, one in front of the other like she had still been standing on solid earth.

With a fierce yell, she pulled her arms backwards, then exerted a surprising level of force into her sword whilst making a pushing motion. None of the three girls managed to stop it, yet they did use it to their advantage after they got pushed back and sent flying across the battlefield. The first one who used this to her own advantage turned out to be Blanc, who flipped herself backwards multiple times before landing on the side corner/ledge of a tall building. She planted her feet onto it and looked up at the Lastation native, her eyes shining with malice and wrathful intent.

"My Turn!"

Another fierce yell escaped from Blanc's throat this time, as she jumped right bac towards her foe with the spot she previously stood on becoming a crater from the amount of force she had put to propel herself. As she flew forwards, Blanc raised her Axe for an overhead slam, intending to make a strike which would slice Noire vertically in two with the applied force. However, Noire jumped back at the last second, causing the strike to miss its mark by a narrow margin. Instead, the axe head smacked itself into the ground beneath the two girls, causing the ground to buckle and form a crater at least 10 feet wide in circumference in every direction. Spoke volumes about how much force got put into that blow, huh?

Nevertheless, Noire smirked smugly down at Blanc, prideful in how she had easily evaded her attack. Out of the four of them, Noire had already pegged Blanc as the slowest of them, but also the strongest in terms of physical strength. She once heard Neptune say it best: she was a little girl with a big punch, now if only she had a massive gun, thenshe could complete THAT trope too. When she looked down at Blanc though, Noire expected there to be a look of fury in her eyes, so why was it that instead she saw a vicious smirk forming on her lips like she knew something she didn't?

"Forget about me?"

GASP!

That answer soon came to her, when Noire sensed killing intent behind her. Swiftly, she twisted around to find Vert there, already having reared her Spear backwards for a thrust. Noire quickly reacted to this move, having fought countless times against Vert in the past just like she had with the others. She knew fine well how fast her thrusts could be, so just as she raised her blade, Vert's Spear descended upon her like a striking viper. It struck harder than a sledgehammer and fast enough that it made afterimages of itself, forcing Noire to completely rely on defensive movements as she rapidly parried each thrust. She managed to do this simply thanks to her past experiences with her, as she had become familiar with her Spear movements enough that she could see past the afterimages to where the true Spear lay. Although that didn't mean blocking and parrying each strike had become any easier either.

The chance this moment of thrusting and parrying provided itself for the third member of the team to act, having waited for the ideal opportunity to strike. Behind Noire, Neptune appeared with her katana sword reared back for a reverse horizontal slash from the right to the left. The blade sailed through the air with perfect speed, handling and fluidity, a sign that this sword's wielder knew very well how to handle it. Just a moment before it could connect though, Noire's right eye glanced behind her to notice this as well as its wielder, thus performed a counter-manoeuvre by bending her head sideways and raising her sword upwards, allowing her to deflect and angle the dangerous Katana upwards. She'd also managed to disarm Vert of her Spear with that movement as well.

By the time the attack ended, Noire used the momentum to flip back down to the ground, landing in a kneeling position with her sword still in hand but angled diagonally. Several thud sounds resounded which told her that the other two had landed as well, likely with their weapons either still in hand or retrieved. Similar experiences from their past battles had taught Noire to assume this to be true, so when she looked up and saw Vert having landed next to her weapon she didn't show any surprise towards it. Instead, she stood up tall and returned to her floating position, flicking one of her twin tails aside before placing the same hand on her hip. She glanced around at all three of the girls attacking her, and sneered with a contemptuous smirk. "Why don't we take off the kid gloves?" There, that should be the best kind of bait for them, especially since she had an ace up her sleeve she'll be using to settle this in one fell swoop.

Behind the battlefield, the crowd got the hidden message Noire had transmitted through those words, and made sure to take up to 20 steps back, more for the front lines since what would be happening next would NOT be small in the slightest.

Back to the battle, each of the three girls recovered themselves and prepared to attack once more. Blanc favoured pulling her Axe out of the ground without a word, glaring at Noire whilst her Axe's blade cut through the upturned dirt like it was a batch of freshly chopped carrots. Vert and Neptune followed her example in regards to getting ready, before all three of them charged at Noire from three sides at once.

"Allow me!"

"I'm gonna finish this right now!"

'Chance!'

If she were a meme right now, Noire's eyes would be glowing red whilst she glanced down to hide the victorious expression on her face. She stabbed her sword into the ground whilst waiting for the others to come close enough, so they wouldn't be able to escape what followed next in time. As the girls came close, unaware of Noire's true intent, she bent her her body forwards whilst wrapping her arms around herself, her form becoming cloaked with a red aura. At this point, the girls felt something had gone wrong, but before they could do anything… "I'll show you the power of Lastation's CPU!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

'Tch, Damn!'

'Impossible!'

'H-How?!'

"KKKYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

* * *

Hunger… it hungered.

How long had it been since it had last fed? How many centuries had it taken for it to pass from the history of the human race? Its sense of time had become too vague to tell anymore, but the hunger it always held still remained. It was not the same as it once was, all the powers and abilities it possessed were now long gone; only the core of its abilities remained. Yet, it had stayed silent and safe underground, keeping its hunger sated by feeding on the small insects that would foolishly wander too close to its spot in the earth.

Time had passed, and its senses had dulled, the awareness it once possessed about the outside world having vanished through the gaps of time. One by one, specs of the once almighty, godlike power it had once possessed left it, leaving it only with the core aspects of its powers left. Yet, its Hunger was one of its sole companions; its hunger constantly reminded it to feed, to survive and to consume. Yet, its instincts, even after their dulling after so long of hiding within the earth, its power persisted whilst it remained within its resting place.

With this state, all it had been able to do to sate its boredom, would have been to preserve what genetic data it could, and that data carried memories. Memories, which were fragmented and damaged thanks to the passing of history, although it could still make out those shards of the past. Back then, it must have been even fiercer than it had recalled, for the scenes it recalled were things, things that it did not even see itself capable of in its current helpless, weakened form. It remembered the burning of entire buildings belonging to some kind of pathetic civilisation, of streets littered with both garbage and corpses of those whom had been unworthy of its blessing. It recalled the stench of decay; of death and destruction no matter where it touched, reducing what had once been an 'almighty' existence that nobody would have EVER dared to mess with. It could have done whatever it wanted with the world being at its mercy.

However, that had been a long time ago, and back then, it had not anticipated that it would have had to face one enemy of which it had NOT been able to defeat, or even endure when it had been at the height of its 'golden age' back then: Time.

Now that it thought about it that made sense, even the mightiest beings are influenced the ravages of time. Deities would become forgotten memories, left to disappear into the everlasting darkness that preceded the dawn of time itself. Cities would rust and shatter, becoming nothing but piles of dust over tens of thousands of years, which the world would eventually claim back as its own. Great forests would wither and die out eventually; even planets and stars would eventually die. Nothing ever could truly last forever. In this case, it truly gotten itself defeated by something it could not even hope to match.

That probably explained why it had ended up like this.

But… it didn't want to expire, no matter what kind of situation had befallen it. Nothing ever truly did, but it had fought for so long against the grip of death, so it would be damned if it would be stopping now. It had to believe that things would look up for it, that its luck would finally turn for the better after all these countless millennia. It REFUSED to let the ravages of time completely erase it from existence, it refused with every remainder of its being. One day, it would be able to move once more, one day it would return to the annals from history, it would not fade away into nothing without leaving behind a legacy which would be remembered by the ages! This, it had sworn long ago, and even now its resolution still didn't change…!

…

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…

…

…

…

…

…

… Wait… what the…?

For the first time in all these millennia, confusion began to dominate what remained of its mind. Why did it sense… something nearby just now? It looked to be fairly close to its position, wherever it was though that was not of any concern to it right now. This would mark the first time it had encountered something which had passed through its senses, the thought of which sending chills of excitement through its body. Chills, which it had not felt in so long that they themselves almost felt alien to it. For the first time, it started to become active once again, expanding its senses that had long since laid dormant within from lack of use. At first, they had been quite groggy and shoddily made, especially when compared to something like what it recalled it had once been capable of doing in the far distant past.

Finally, it located the source of this new… disturbance, and when it did, it would have salivated if it still had the ability to do so. After all, this would be the first time it had encountered a live HUMAN in this desolate place, it knew this human (it had no care for anything else about it) was still alive from how its senses picked up a faint heartbeat. However, it looked like the human would not live for much longer, so it's time window would not be very long.

However, it was not like it cared, the only thing it bothered with would be to drag it's liquidly, gooey form forth towards the source of the human's location. In its opinion, humans are both a pathetic species, what with their constant cause of carnage through their useless, fruitless eternal strife, but they were also the beings with dangerous potential. Danger though, intrigued it greatly, as danger had been pretty much its reason for gaining life. If it had the chance, it would have even appreciated the sight of a dying human however this was a one-in-a-million chance, thus it dared not be too negligent. Who knows when it could have gotten an opportunity like this?

A short moment passed, but its form finally oozed out of the cracks, which it had escaped into in order to feed off the underground wildlife an amount of time ago it could not recall right now, nor did it care to. Its form quickly shot over the human's body, its senses telling it that it had lost consciousness though it still clung to life regardless. There seemed to be countless small openings that it realized were wounds over the human's body, the causes of which it sensed would be closing in fast. However, it felt no fear as it finally entered the body through these wounds, slipping completely inside to start the process from the body's bloodstream.

The process of their merger began immediately, with everything about it fusing with and changing the human's body from the cellular level upwards. Bones, brittle and damaged beyond repair as they had been, were shattered then remade into brilliant new and pure splendour, fitting of its newest vessel. Blood vessels exploded within the bloodstream then reformed into new cells filled with its essence, ones which carried it further around the human's body quicker which also served to speed up the merger. It bet that outside the human's body there would be Tendrils of itself swirling around the body's wounds, closing them up after sucking inside what blood there had been for extra energy. Even after this whole time, it still had the energy and genetic data needed to utilize this body's full potential.

A moment later, it got the shock of its life… What a FIND this body turned out to be!

If it had any lingering doubts about the body's potential, then no longer would they have troubled it when it analysed the human's body whilst linking itself to its brain. Not only did its genetic code prove capable of resisting it, allowing it to complete the merger without fear of absolutely obliterating the human's mental faculties, but this body had the capability to form its greatest ever creation, the one which had brought low entire civilisations with how versatile, powerful and deadly it had been! This thrilled it; the chance for once again regaining what it had once possessed no longer seemed like a pipe dream!

Of course, some things about this body it would have to change, like restoring it back to pristine condition, but afterwards much of its energy would be gone. It would need more, but luckily, for it there were more than a DOZEN… less fortunate sacrifices heading this way. Its senses told it this due to having an actual body to operate. After that, it would need to make this body into an ideal host for something as grand as itself! Thanks to this genetic code, it doubted it'd be able to overhaul the personality of this body, but that didn't matter to it, for it had long ago learned just how beneficial it would be to let the human have its own will. Just by looking at its genetics, assured it that the body would make good use of its power once this merger would be complete. Then there were these health problems it discovered within the genetic coding, but those would easily be taken care of soon enough.

For far too long the world spent no longer knowing its name. For far too long the pitiful massed remained in blissful ignorance to its existence.

Soon however, this shall change. With this body, it shall return from the depths of history… Then, it shall make the world FEAR the name Blacklight once again!

* * *

**Chapter end!**

**Hey guys, just releasing this little bit here, a prologue to a fic I've been making on the side. At this point i'm considering giving up on making promises, since fanfic Ideas come to me whenever they please these days. This one's, as one might have figured, set in the Hyperdevotion universe, something which I haven't seen many fics written about, if at all. Thought that I could change that, not to mention crossing it over with one of my favorite franchises, PROTOTYPE. More chapters will come since there's over 5 of them already finished, so look forward to them ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Wow… so this is Lastation…"

Upon reaching the entrance to Lastation, capital city presided over by the CPU herself, Black Heart, one Alexander Evans, though he preferred the name Alex could not help but be in awe, as he stood there, breathless. If one were to describe him, well, the descriptions 'pretty boy' and 'bad boy' would be apt ones, especially the first one. It was not something that he had decided to want to portray, it had mostly to do with family and genetics, but that would be a story for another time.

Shaking his head after attempting to regain his composure, the kid glanced down whilst trying to steady himself, his hand ruffling his dark black hair under his matching cap that had a green interior, whilst brushing past the three piercings in his ears. "Wow, I honestly can't believe that I'm here…" he mumbled, his green eyes with their large, fluttery lashes blinking whilst he struggled to comprehend the fact that he had found himself at THIS specific nation. His lips, even with the piercing within them, remained parted without any commands from his brain to close them for a time. "Mom and sis will likely be oh so jealous, they always wanted to meet the most hardworking CPU of the four… Then again, they probably are that I managed to leave the village at all." He mumbled, pushing his large glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Raising his arms, Alex clutched his ankle-length black leather trench coat with a green interior, one that sported a light green interior before adjusting it as if to try to make himself look more presentable. Not like, he was nervous about meeting someone who had such high status in Gamarket, nope. Not one bit. His heart thumped wildly within his chest, which his black V-neck covered whilst the clothing article sported white letters in alphabetical order, the first three being the biggest and the rest forming three lines beneath them. In an attempt to calm his nerves, Alex clutched the necklace that hung around his neck, taking a few deep yet shaking breaths. He had gone to such great lengths to get here, so he hoped that things would not be too bad for him.

Good thing he already had his supplies on him, so he should be able to afford a decent apartment for the time being until he got a somewhat decent job. Not like, he did too badly in school, if his marks in his BTEC GCSE as well as his college results would be anything to say about it. "Mom and sis would be right about one thing at least, this city is way bigger than my hometown, it almost practically freaking dwarfs it." Alex mused softly, assuming his thinking pose: a left hand clutching his jaw and his right clutching his left elbow whilst he glanced down at the ground, showing his green wristbands that had googly eyes and a smiley face on them. His mother and sister, they may not be under Lastation's banner, but that did not mean they believed in her any less. It was not as if they hated the other CPUs either, it was just that their given lifestyle fit well with Black Heart's ideologies of hard work always giving the best results. Alex could agree with them there, though he wondered what the CPU would be like in person.

Images of his travels passed through his mind, of how he had ventured through vast plains, traversed mountain routes, even passed through a few of the towns on his journey here. One time he DID stumble too close to a monster Nest, although he could not recall it very well. He DID remember having little choice in the matter, as even with his Parkour skills his route had not been the 'safest' route to travel. There had been more than a few times where he had caught a branch on the chains which hung over his Coat's breast pockets, along with the chains hanging below the pockets of his black tight jeans… now that he thought about it, he did nearly trip on a few rocks with his black and green trainers, black socks too. Glad he had his matching belt on this time; if not he could have damaged the jeans he wore via those chains.

Yeah, that was a thing in Gamarket. The whole world (well he was not sure if he should call it a 'world' in that sense since it was just this continent) had an assortment of different Monster species infesting it. Though infesting it would not be very accurate either as they, along with humanity, have always been in this place. However, people have had grief from them to no end, and as such people just call them monsters just for generalizing, something which Alex himself hadn't really too many good feelings about. Still, there were so many different monsters in the world: ranging from the utterly terrifying ones that anyone in their right mind would stay away from, right down to the downright weird ones who looked more comical than threatening. The CPUs who rule their Lands and cities all kept the monsters at bay using their large militias, but their numbers are just far too great to properly eliminate. Not to mention that they have been around for so long now that life had, well, just made them a part of the norm. As such, although they did cause trouble for the people, nobody wanted to go out and commit monster genocide until none remained.

Growing up, Alex had heard many tales about the Monsters throughout Gamarket told by the various village guards, as well as travelling merchants whom often visited. Sometimes, he would spend entire afternoons just listening to them regal him these tales, which birthed his curiosity about the outside world at the time. However, he had been too young to leave the village back then, much to his dismay. Therefore, he just had to wait until he had gotten the proper credentials to be to leave to pursue his own fortunes, to be able to live life how HE wanted like every budding young man should. However, it would be a lie if he ever mentioned that he did not think of his family situation before doing this.

'Perhaps if I had been patient, the winds back then would have changed course so they wouldn't have tracked my scent…' he mused mentally. However, he would also admit to wondering how he had emerged from that incident unscathed, since he had been short on credits at the time, and had not decided to get any Quest work done since he wanted to get to Lastation as soon as possible. Quite a dumb move on his part, Alex realized afterwards. If his mother found out about it, she would give him no small amount of grief over it. The Coat-tails of his Trench Coat then flickered when a small breeze passed through him, causing him to shudder and realize that it would likely be a good idea to start apartment hunting so he could warm himself up. He could SO do with some nice heating after everything he went through to get here. 'Right, probably best to get inside and find an apartment first, then I can go job hunting…'

With his priorities straight, Alex headed inside the City.

* * *

Inside the City, Alex proceeded to walk down the streets, having bought a milkshake with what little Credits he had put aside for refreshments when he would finally arrive at his destination. The teen leisurely strolled down the streets, trying not to let all the massive buildings get to him, since as someone from a small village, seeing all these buildings had been enough to make him feel dizzy BEFORE entering the city. Seeing them from within felt like a completely new league for his nerves, though he did wonder what it would be like to perform some parkour stunts here, he was friends with a woman who did parkour as part of her Courier Job after all. The things she and he got up to back then…

'Hmmm… now that I look around, there might be something big going on…' Alex thought as he eyed the streets… more importantly the DESERTED streets. To be frank, ever since he stopped for refreshments, Alex had not ONCE seen another person walking around, not one. The shops usually had been built so they would remain INSIDE large buildings, which he guessed was a way to use the Air Climate for the AC and more likely to protect civilians from anything which happened outside. It, contrary to what he expected, gave him a somewhat lonely impression.

Now that he thought about it, this was something that he had heard about for a while now. It had been a joke that the village kids his age had shared about the Lastation CPU. They would go on about the joke title she had, the 'lonely CPU', not maliciously though (well, a minority did think that way), but Alex tried not to think of her that way. In his mind, it felt more like the CPU busied herself to the point where she did not socialize NEARLY as much as one normally should. Alex had sometimes worried about her health, even though he had not ever met her before, but if she was still going strong then she must be doing all right.

Still the thing Alex saw right now worried him: the lack of people here. Again, small village kid here, he was someone who had grown up hearing about how 'large', 'full of life' and 'Bustling' these larger cities tended to be. He had not stopped at any large, well-known cities on his travels, mainly sticking to larger-than normal towns and villages that received supplies from them. Mostly due to anxiety reasons, if anyone asked him. He saw it as similar to times when shy kids would take isolated routes to school in order to avoid the large crowds of other students. What he was seeing right now however, felt like the exact opposite, which blew his mind away… and not in a good manner, either.

'Something isn't right here… something must have gone wrong, very, VERY wrong…'

Alarm bells rang in his mind, and his palms clenched themselves into fists uneasily. Looking around with a worried gaze, Alex took a small gulp whilst rubbing his forehead with his right forearm, wiping away imaginary sweat there. He hoped that the CPU would notice this and fix what the problem was, but the more he looked around, the more he began to feel dread sink its nasty fangs deep into his gut. Much like that time when he had felt the claws of those Monsters digging into his flesh, Alex got the impression that Lastation had NOT remained as it had once been. Everything felt so… open, bare, as if to say 'alright you ingrates, come in here and mess everything up we don't mind!'. Now THAT thought served the purpose of making him pause his stride, worried eyes glancing around with the thoughts of job hunting and apartment searching now completely vanished.

'Okay… what IS going on here? Why's everything so deserted? For a city as renowned as Lastation, this shouldn't be what I see…'

Although he could not recall that incident clearly, the feeling of blood pumping, adrenaline rushing through his veins, his ears ringing as if they were living bells certainly felt all too familiar. His breaths came out in laboured gasps even though he had not even been running all that much, nor had he exhausted his stamina. A tense sensation overtook his body as it tightened itself up inside, ready to spring into action at any moment. Alex maintained his composure despite all these things though, as he remained familiar with this feeling.

Having Parkour skills meant one had to be quite close to the feeling of impending doom.

'This feeling… if I'm getting this now, then I'm likely in grave danger…' Alex thought as he took on his battle stance. For him, Alex specialized in weapon usage, it did not really matter what kind of weapon just as long as he had one. Hand-to-Hand was not as prioritized in his village back then, but he had picked up a few things here and there, though he did not really practice it much. As such, his battle stance without a weapon (his own got destroyed beyond repair getting here) looked like this: Alex kept his legs spread apart, his right in front whilst his left in a crouching position. His hands were raised to his chest level yet remained in a claw-like stance.

For a moment, all remained silent…

BOOM!

SWISH!

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Until it suddenly was not.

"Whoa, holy SHIT!" Alex let out a startled cry rang throughout the atmosphere, similar to a howling banshee, as he sharply jumped sideways towards the main street and a good thing too. It had just been a split second, but in that moment, he had detected a faint does of killing intent. Growing up in a village such as his had trained his senses to be quite acute to that sort of thing. As a result, that split second had been all he had been able to do to avoid the sudden uprising of… something that shot out the ground where he had once stood, intending to impale him through the stomach. This phenomenon managed to churn up waves of dust, as well as exploding debris that was sent flying right up into the air, shrouding the thing's form from view. It actually almost succeeded in its task too, just barely nicking him in the side, causing Alex to wince and let out a hiss, feeling something tear through his flesh like warm tofu.

His landing on the streets was not as clear-cut as he would have liked because of this, as Alex fell onto his right shoulder. A burst of pain ERUPTED within his shoulder because of this, but Alex gritted his teeth, bit back the pain before using the momentum to his advantage to roll back up to his feet. Alongside him all the while, the pieces of debris and dirt fell to the ground, rolling across it as the sounds of crumbling resonated from the spot, where Alex had once stood. 'Sheesh that was a close one! One more split second and I would have become a human pincushion…!' he thought in his mind, placing a hand on his chest to calm his wildly thumping heart.

The said black haired male quickly peered into the smoke and dust, not seeing anything for the most part. However, that did not mean he would let his guard down, as instincts screamed at him not to do so. It was strange, ever since the attack on him by those monsters, Alex had discovered a range of different abnormal changes taking place within his body. Changes that only happened from that moment onwards. For example, no longer needing to rest on his journey, feeling like he could stay awake forever and more importantly, he could perform physical feats the likes of which he had never felt before. Feats that nearly made his eyes fly out his sockets the first time that he did so.

Putting his focus back onto the impending situation, Alex narrowed his eyes at his next opponent, feeling a sense of tension the likes of which he had not felt in a long while. As the dust began to clear, he began to make out a vague silhouette within the smoke, swishing about and striking away at the building. It almost looked like it was searching for something, instead of just outright attacking him, though the teen did not count that out just yet. Though this could potentially change at any second, and according to his previous experiences that could most definitely happen so Alex made sure to keep his guard up.

Even with all this however, nothing could have prepared him for the following events.

One moment, Alex noticed a faint red flash within the smoke, and in the next, he instinctively reacted. The teen quickly leaned his upper body sideways, twisting it backwards whilst throwing out his arms. A loud exclamation of shock tore from his lips when he saw something long, thin, and incredibly sticky-looking Tongue-like Tendril thing suddenly shoot through the air like the lunging of a Spear. Fortunately, it missed him but it had only missed by a fraction of an inch. Up close like this, Alex got a good look at the appendage, and saw how it had these small, but long and thin hooks over its form, as well as a small mouth on its tip, causing him to tremble slightly in revulsion. 'Ugh, and people from my village like to talk about tongue kissing a lot…' He would likely never see that the same way again after this.

Possible mental scarring aside, the appendage did not stick around, as the following second it sharply retreated into the smokescreen once again, but this time the launcher of it began to move, several appendages slowly making their way out. Alex quickly righted himself whilst this happened though, opting to go for a more defensive strategy. That moment earlier had shown him something about this creature, whatever it was, and that was that it could easily kill him with its Tongue if he were to try to run away with his tail between his legs. It could just stab into him with that Tongue of its, so his initial instinct to flee had been crushed underfoot, since that would only end with him receiving an early grave or the fate of being a snack bar for this thing for his troubles.

Finally, the silhouette fully made itself known, stepping out with a slow, steady set of appendages that impaled the ground they landed on. Everywhere they touched, cracks would form in the concrete, shattering path edges and damaging the roads. When Alex saw what it was, however, no longer was there any sort of composure as his skin practically drained itself of colour like a vampire sucking blood. His eyes shot open wider than dinner plates, and he became breathless. Standing before him, was something that he had NEVER seen before in all his life, something unlike any monster he had ever freaking seen!

The monster appeared to have resemblance to a Scorpion, the long appendage he had seen earlier having being its Tail. The creature easily had enough size to cut through an entire car with one of its Pincers, with its width as a whole being that of two cars put side by side. The creature's length however, would be about 15 whole meters if its Tail and head placed themselves on opposite sides of a ruler. Its form got covered by this thick, armour-like black Carapace with orangish tints on the sides, with the legs being completely orange, whilst the head seemed eerily shaped like that of a human's… only, it lacked any facial features. The Pincers of this creature looked to be slim, unlike the Scorpions Alex normally heard of from books, with two claw-like appendages easily about 8 foot long each with serrated edges. Behind it, that Tail it had easily seemed like it could crush small buildings with ease, with its massive bulk and large stinger that had the length of a longsword.

All in all, a killer in the making if Alex had ever seen one.

'What the… what kind of BEAST is this?' Alex screamed in the depths of his mind, suppressing his urge to shudder lest it give this creature the pleasure of seeing him tremble before it. One thing he learned well, NEVER let the Predator know your inner feelings, they would rip into you otherwise, same with movements. No erratic movements, no erratic movements, no…

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

**(Play OST – I am all of me – Shadow the Hedgehog)**

…Whelp, looked like the beast lost its temper anyways.

A frenzy of curses escaped his throat when Alex saw the creature howl at him, though it lacked the proper facial features to show that it was doing it. The creature jumped towards his position, quickly swinging its right Pincer towards him in an attempt to grab him. Barely reacting in time however, Alex quickly ran forwards, sliding underneath the Pincer. 'Tch! So close!' he thought to himself, his adrenaline making his perception make it so that time around him seemed to slow. All the while, the tip of his nose just barely touched the bottom half of the massive pincer, its sensation causing uncontrollable feelings to surge up from deep within.

After he had dodged it, Alex made a mad dash for the sides of the streets, hopping over a flailing Tail, which tried to ram into him from the front (of which he had seen it as an approaching vehicle). Landing on the ground, Alex used the momentum to roll forwards, unintentionally avoiding a second pincer strike from above as he got back to his feet to keep going. The teen had spotted a fallen stop sign earlier, and considering his lack of weapons, the male felt as if he had no other choice but to improvise. Upon reaching it after jumping for it, Alex quickly grabbed onto the stop sign's shaft, quickly rolling back to his feet and twirling around to face the rapidly approaching beast, his eyes hardening into a look of steely determination.

As if to mock him though, the creature made a sound similar to what he could only think as a snort, which caused him to feel… well, more than a little ticked off. 'I'm getting the feeling this guy thinks I'm an idiot…. And I don't like it.' However, to be fair, holding a stop sign like it were a two-handed axe or something would not really make one take one seriously, but Alex did not pay that much heed for now in favour of trying to stay alive. 'Well, mom never raised no quitters, sis would have my hide if she found out I ran from something like this, and what kind of man would I be if I ran from a little danger…?' Instead, he made a loud war cry and charged straight towards the beast, intending to go for the head. One book he'd read told him that Scorpions had terrible eyesight, and whilst this thing apparently LACKED those, he still believed its head had SOME form of sensory organs within it, unless this freak of nature defied biological rules set up by centuries worth of study.

Something which apparently turned out to be the case when, after Alex had sidestepped a Pincer stab then hopped aside from a Tail stab, the Scorpion lunged forth towards him with the intent of biting down on him. Therefore, he decided to raise his makeshift weapon to smash it on the head… though that was when the oddity chose to occur. Just before he could bring it down on the beast, the 'head' turned out to not be a head at all, when it seemingly shuddered… all before splitting itself up like an uncoiling serpent, exposing what lay beneath: Multiple circular rows of teeth with two large, jittery eyeballs outside the outermost set.

'WHAT THE FUCK?!' Alex screeched, so caught off guard that he reflexively bent his body backwards to slide right under the creature, its massive form easily passing over him. When he resurfaced behind it, Alex flipped himself around and used the rear end of the stop sign to halt himself, before getting to his feet. 'Whew, sheesh, that shit freaked me the hell out to where I moved on instinct…' he thought, clutching his chest to try to calm his pounding heart, which thumped wildly within the cage that was his torso. 'What the hell, why the fuck does this thing have literally NOTHING for a head? Where the hell did it come from, why hasn't anyone seen this thing before?' Questions like this circulated through his mind, all the while Alex shifted himself so that he could get ready for another charge when the beast stomped its right legs into the concrete, using them like anchors to swing itself around a full 180 degrees, jumping through the air to charge right back at him. It's 'head' had coiled back together by this time, though Alex did not DARE call it one.

Seriously, something like… that… would definitely be bringing people nightmares.

… And right now, he somehow found himself thinking about a penis head doing the same thing…

'Ugh, that's going to scar me for life…' Alex groaned in his mind, before he steeled himself and formed a battle plan. Mental scarring aside, it was plainly evident that he wouldn't be able to go for this creature's head since it seemed to 'lack' one as biologically impossible as that sounded. As such, Alex would have to play a… different strategy, one he had to implement fast if he did not want to welcome a hole onto his chest. Seeing the pincer coming for him, the male sidestepped the Pincer then stopped beside it before he raised the Stop sign and brought it right down onto the limb supporting the Pincer.

Throughout the whole fight, Alex had made sure to pay close attention to the finer details of the creature's body, it had been something his mother and a travelling merchant who had once been a soldier himself before taking an arrow to the knee, advised him to do. Their logic was that if he did so, he would be able to notice traits about the enemy that he could use to his advantage in a fight, logic which had saved him more times than he'd care to mention. As such, during this scuffle, he had briefly caught a few glances of it, but the arms had these short gaps between the carapace plates around the arms themselves, likely so that it could maintain high mobility with those arms it had.

As a result, with the amount of strength Alex pumped into the ensuing swing…

SQUELCH!

**(OST end)**

… He managed to sever the creature's Pincer at the base of its connection to the arm, with surprisingly less resistance than he had expected. Had he been eating too much protein? Cause Alex sure as hell did not recall working out to get that kind of strength.

In any case, his attempt caused the creature to let out a pained sound that resembled a mix, a mix between a screech and a wail that filled the surrounding atmosphere, as well as forced Alex into dropping his makeshift weapon (which had lost the stop sign part duer to it shattering soon after his strike) to cover his strangely extra sensitive ears. The creature's pained cries occurred with a series of sporadic movements, sometimes failing on its sides whilst its remaining Pincer and Tail flailed about like headless chickens. Meanwhile, Alex panted heavily as he saw these signs that he had injured it, a hand over his chest as his heart steadily calmed itself down whilst he recovered from this rush of that short, yet straight-forward fight. That had been a close one for sure; this had felt like those fight documentaries between animals he had sometimes watched, short, yet deceptively straightforward. Taking advantage of one's own abilities to try to get the upper hand.

'If any readers complain about short fights, I bet the author will try that card… then again, maybe he'll miss things up a bit.' Alex thought to himself, smirking a little with an amused chuckle following suit. Oh yeah, he forgot to mention that Gamarket inhabitants had the habit of breaking the fourth wall, being 'meta' as fans like to call it. Mostly used for comedic purposes, though he had once heard of someone whose so meta that he could outwit even someone with the ability to completely predict the opponent's next move. Alex was not exactly sure on that one though.

Glancing down at the Pincer, Alex watched it intently for a moment, and for that brief instance, he swore he felt something… overcome him. It was not as if he could explain it, but just for that instant, it felt almost like he had an out-of-body experience, with his mind only watching what his body did, which was to kneel before the Pincer. Before it could continue though, Alex quickly regained himself, as evidenced by how his eyes, which had once this vacant and lost look to them, blinked with clarity returning to them. His eyes widened as Alex shook his head, holding his hand over his temple as he tried to make sense of that lapse of judgement. 'The hell… why did I just black out just now…?' the male wondered, puzzlement evident all over his face as well as a degree of anxiety and doubt filling his mind. 'I… better get out of here, before that thing shows its ugly mug again for a repeat performance.' he thought again, about to make his move by turning and walking away…

When the most BIZARRE yet morbidly mystifying thing happened to him.

"Guh!"

All of a sudden, just as he made to turn away from the Pincer, taking only a single step, a SCORCHING heat exploded forth inside of him, rushing through his system like a chaotic storm whilst completely eradicating his ability to move. It happened so quickly, so abruptly, that Alex had absolutely ZERO chance to resist as he completely got caught off guard.

"Gah! Ack… Grk… hck…Grk... Ack...Ack… Grk… hck…Grk... Ack...!"

His mouth fell open in a silent scream, as nothing came out of it like there was an invisible hand clutching his throat in a tight vice-like grip. His hands rose to his neck and tried clawing at it as if to try and free it from its grip, all the while the heat sensation only kept getting hotter and hotter by the second. It didn't take him long before Alex fell to his knees, then onto his side and then his back, proceeding to roll from side to side. Saliva dripped down his chin as his eyes shrunk to the size of dots, his pupils becoming unfocused whilst pain absolutely PUMMELLED his body without mercy.

It didn't take very long before what little remained of his strength left him too, resulting in Alex no longer being able to move as he lay on his back. He couldn't even twitch a finger without his body almost howling in pain like a fanatical fan at their idol's concert. Veins soon bulged across various parts of his body as Alex held his mouth open, not even trying to close it for fear of making his body's pain even worse. As his eyes trembled ever more violently, storms of chaotic and violent spasms ran rampant through him, so it didn't really matter if he didn't try moving since it practically moved on its own. He wanted to scream like a banshee, howl like a newborn infant to the rest of the world, but Alex''s current situation made that all but impossible, something which spawned a growing sense of frustration amidst the agony inside his being, which only fuelled the spasms. A circle of agony, one could say, and one which Alex nearly found himself blacking out multiple times at only for something to 'shoot' through the base of his spine to force him awake.

All the while, the teen lay there, desperately wishing for this pain to end, to be finally set free from his torment. He wished someone, anyone, could come and relieve him of this searing sensations overrunning his body at such intensity it felt like he stood right smack dab next to the sun up in outer space. 'This… This hurts so much! Mom! Little Sis! Sorry, looks like this big bro's not going to be coming back as soon as he'd hoped…' the male thought as a sense of looming death washed over him, and as much as that sounded like sweet relief from his pain, the teen couldn't help but think of the family that he cherished more than anything, the family whom had been the reason for the majority of the life choices he'd made.

Just as the pain seemed to reach its apex, an explosion of white filled his vision, before everything went black.

* * *

Hmmm, looked like it had miscalculated somewhere…

For the host to have such a reaction to the first act he would ever make as its latest champion… it puzzled it immensely. None of the previous hosts had ever had problems like this, even though their firsts had always been the most intense. It had eventually settled into this numb feeling whereas the transferring of information got smoother… although it had to have hundreds of occurrences for this evolution to become possible.

It may not know the cause of what had happened, but it knew for a FACT what had happened had been something unnatural, something which the host would inevitably grow accustomed to like its predecessors before it. It wondered just when its host would come to grow to enjoy the experience, the thrill of overcoming all kinds of unexpected situations before it like the Apex Predator it will become, since some of its hosts in the distant past enjoyed the pleasure and the high of the act, the feeling of taking something in and ripping away everything that organism has for their own benefit. That was its true nature pretty much, to take and take until there was nothing left to take anymore, then when it's done move on to a new area to begin the whole cycle anew.

As for the host itself, it had to admit that for a first-timer it showed some interesting potential, just like how it had sensed from him when they finally became one. Just a quick scanning of his memories told it much about him as a character, and what interested it the most was that he had previous fighting and survival instincts, instincts he had honed quite a bit growing up. This would be good, it would be very good, as well as it explained how he had been able to sense the incoming danger before it could sneak attack him, as well as keep calm, observe the enemy for weaknesses and use what he had at his disposal to take his foe down. Although, from what it had seen from viewing the battle through its hosts' eyes, it decreed that he still had a ways to go, as he COULD have ripped into the creature without letting it even CONSIDER getting away. If he had done this, then not only would the developing mutations have completed themselves, but they would have done so instantly. Now, he would have to wait whilst the mutations developed themselves…

Although, one good thing could come from that, and that would be the new variants in the mutations. The thing about taking in an entire creature was that it would gain the entire genetic template which it would then use as a base to construct only the best of new mutations for the host, converting the rest into Biomass which would be used to empower and sustain its abilities. Taking in only a part of the creature resulted in a significantly more restrained development process on its end, but there also could be the possibility of improving the mutation in ways not originally intended by the creature's genetic makeup, something which honestly intrigued it since, from what it could recall from its distant past, not many hosts tried to go down this route for their mutations.

However, like a coin there was always two sides, a good and a bad. The bad side of THIS particular thing would be that there was a greater potential for the mutation to fail in its development becoming utterly useless and forcing it to convert it into simple Biomass for the host, and even then there wouldn't be as much as it normally would. Furthermore these Mutations depended heavily on it's own knowledge and experiences due to the optimal template of the entire creature not being available for its use as a reference, which could create potential problems further down the line. Another flaw in this approach would be that there is a greater possibility that these mutations wouldn't be up to the same standards as one with the optimal genetic template of the creature, as those templates helped construct the creature with the best possible specs for its purpose. That largely contributed to why past hosts didn't really try to approach mutation development in this manner, they preferred the optimal mutations for their powers rather than risk losing out and potentially meeting their ends on the battlefield.

Still, aside from this dilemma, there was still the problem of the unexpected reaction its host had to the process. Perhaps… Perhaps it could investigate this? It didn't doubt that the host would be in danger, after all it seemed that the host had successfully pulled it of, although it wasn't as 'plentiful' as it would if the host had taken in the whole creature. Still, it had been enough for the time being, it could develop the mutations itself with what knowledge it still managed to retain from its distant past, perhaps with the added assistance of the host's memories, as it showed that he had graduated his high school with flying colours, his grades in various fields being fairly high up from what it could understand of the education system. Furthermore, it would eagerly await the next encounter with that bease, as if they were to evolve this mutation further, encountering that creature again would be of favourable quality, and judging by the essence that creature had, it KNEW that they would find it again. It had already mastered the host's scent, so it would know how to track it anywhere the host went. It's only natural, for the creature and it followed the same principles: Hunt, kill, consume, become. The ultimate survivalist mentality, law of the jungle, pretty much. To that end, it decided to see if it could solve this problem before the host could end up using its core ability again, for it saw this unexpected development as a sign of weakness…

And Blacklight did NOT tolerate weakness.

* * *

When he stirred once again into the conscious land, Alex sort of half expected to have encountered that beast being about to devour what was left of him to finish the ask it had started. He didn't know WHY he felt that way, it just seemed to be right to him, so instinctual, but nonetheless when he awoke after an unknown amount of time had passed, he found himself to be alone on the same street. He could have just brushed this off as a dream, however the remains of total destruction in this city from the collateral damage of their fight pretty much smashed that idea into paste then sealed it away. 'What the...hell was that…?' the black haired male remarked to himself mentally, groaning as he struggled to push himself up off the ground. Apparently he had been lying down on his stomach for however long he had been unconscious, so he hurriedly decided to rectify that, ending up in a sitting position as he leaned back with his hands on the ground behind him, another groan escaping his lips.

'Ugh… now THAT was a trip I never thought i'd be going through…' the teen couldn't help but think when his thought processing returned to its normal state, something which happened much faster than it normally would to his confusion, although Alex attributed it to the changes that had befallen his body. Honestly, if he didn't feel so drained from everything which had happened, Alex believed he would have started freaking out by now. As good being calm and analytical it is, one can only do that for so long before the stress of which causes him or her to snap from the strain, and so if his fatigue hadn't been so prevalent then Alex had no doubt he would have hit his limit already. Still, Alex forced his heavy feeling body to get up after a few minutes, since sitting on the cold and dirty ground didn't seem like the brightest of ideas, especially in a public setting like this… albeit there still wasn't anyone around to witness him, but still it's the thought that counts. Once he had gotten to his feet, Alex looked around as he continued to gather his thoughts together. `Hmmm, judging by the look of things here, it doesn't seem like I was out for very long, if at most 5 or so minutes. Then, the situation here mustn't have changed all that much, then…'

With that in mind, Alex decided to start heading out to see if he could try and find an apartment again, or perhaps a job. After all, that's why he came here in the first place, and even with these obstacles before him his goal hadn't changed as of yet. The only thing which HAD changed was his thoughts on the city's state, 'Odds are it'll be extremely difficult to find what I'm looking for here until the situation improves… good thing I still have some camping equipment back in my Inventory which I bought for the journey. I can use that in the event that I…'

"GRRRRR!"

"?!"

"Kyaaaaah!"

His thought process halted when he heard a monstrous sounding growl, as well as a female's cry from nearby. 'Shit, is that a woman?!' Alex thought, nodding to himself as thoughts of finding an apartment and a job left his mind for the time being. In that moment, he broke into a mad dash in the direction the voices came from, not noticing the pure yellow trails behind him which came from his limbs.

* * *

**Chapter end!**

**Here's Chapter 2. I can tell you that this one was quite an interesting one to write since I had to put in a different appearance for the secretary. Not really a fan of making a protagonist look so generic that others can insert themselves into. Seems a bit boring to me, i'd rather see a Protagonist with personality, like Yuuji from Grisaia. Damn badass he is, or even Arata. Issei from DxD is a bit too much of a boob maniac if I'm honest though.**

**But as you all can see, the MC known as Alex, has the Blacklight Virus, albeit with a few issues of its own. How did it get there? How did it come to be in Gamindustri? When? Why? Questions which will be answered at a later date, though I wonder if anyone will guess what I have in mind. **

**Hope you all enjoy it.**

**Peace Out. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Was it just him, or was he running faster than he usually did?

A thought like that DID pop into Alex's head as he tore his way through the street, heading close to the city's southern gate which, ironically, had been the same one which he had used previously. At first, Alex didn't see this as a fact until he had looked around and noticed just how fast he moved, what with thing practically becoming blurs whilst passing him by… or rather,as HE passed THEM by. Furthermore, it didn't seem like he had any tunnel vision, since there was no trail of dust in his wake, heck once when he experimented by taking a little hop… he ended dup clearing a large chunk of the distance he still had to get to the southern gate. THAT was enough cause for alarm for him… as well as made him want to go see a doctor.

Though, it soon got pummeled into nothingness by thoughts of how dangerous this situation had become, what with there being apparently no guards to keep the City safe from monster attacks, having seen not a single soldier in sight. 'Okay, if it hadn't been official before, its official now: Something is DEFINITELY wrong here…' he thought with worry blossoming inside his chest like a furnace suddenly intensifying in its heat production. 'If there's no Guards, then of course Monsters wouldn't think twice about attacking a defenceless settlement! Wasn't this place supposed to have divine protection from its CPU though?! So why are Monsters even being able to come through at all, it can't be due to negligence since Black Heart's known to be the most hardworking of the four!' Alex thought,cursing in his mind as he mentally commanded his body to pick up the pace,

With the current running speed that he had, it didn't take him long to reach the southern gate. The southern gate had a rectangular space around it which was used to help people get through it quicker, with various structures surrounding it like benches, chairs, small bikes that sort of thing. Just as Alex had feared, however, it looked like pure chaos now. The main gate looked to have been forcefully knocked over with piles of rubble forming from it. Smoke trails rose up to the skies above, turning them from their once bright blue coloud, to a cloudy brown colour as smoke and dust filled the air from all the destruction the gate had possessed. What's more, was that he could see how Monsters of varying types could be seen everywhere, tearing through the surroundings with reckless abandon, some of them even drooling disgustingly enough.

Judging from what he had seen, looked like they were fairly easy to deal with ones: such as Dogoos, Horsebirds, and a couple dozen 'Dangerous Monster' type Fenrirs. Now, in this situation, it's always wise to know one's enemy, that way one can bring about their destruction much easier and much more effectively. It's a tactic he'd seen being used a few times growing up, and he'd sort of taken it as one of his own. As such, the moment he looked at them, Alex's brain whirred to life as, almost resembling the speed of a quantum computer, he recalled everything he knew about the Monsters before him.

The Dogoos, well, unlike their namesakes did not look like dogs at all, but instead had the forms of sentient blue slimes with dog-like body parts on them. Cute looking things at first, but underestimate them for their weak-looking appearances would usually lead to a bad time… like any girl whom had the misfortune of encountering one of these pesky rascals. They usually travelled in packs and followed a monarchy based ruling system, something which an adventurer discovered when scouting out a patrol route on a quest and then made a surprisingly detailed documentary about. Not something many people did this, since there were so many monsters out there, plus there were some… weird ones which made identifying their weaknesses rather absurdly difficult. However, as one of the more basic monsters, Dogoos had easily flammable bodies, making things to do with fire one of the banes of their existence. Anything which could create flames could in theory be their undoing, if he were honest, as that had been what he impressions he had from that Documentary was when he had watched it.

Next was the Horsebirds, and well they looked kind of like what their name suggests, a mix of horse and a bird. As in they walked on two horse legs and stood like birds perched on top of a tree branch, with a bunch of tailfeathers protruding from their rears and two wings protruding out their sides for arms. Their main torsos looked like that of a bird's but their heads remained that of horses, resulting in quite the… strange mix here. As for weaknesses, they weren't that bad in terms of elemental damage from what he could recall, however they WERE quite vulnerable to cutting and ranged attacks. Alex knew this due to watching a video about a couple of Adventures fighting against a horde of monsters, and one of them cut through a few Horsebirds at once before shooting down several flying ones with a few well-placed bullets through their heads. Pretty sure he had heard some deep, dramatic voice call out 'HEADSHOT!' when that adventurer did that, too.

Lastly, were the Fenrirs, and BOY would they be the most trouble out of all the monster types gathered around here. After all, they were as large as an average Lastation car, with the forms of wolves and lions to boot. As in, they had dark blue fur coating their bodies whilst their hands and feet were clawed talons, their heads being protected by a large furry mane which had a lighter blue colour to it. Their eyes shone a sinister, hollow red colour with their snouts filled to the brim with razor sharp fangs, fangs best used for ripping through flesh, bone and anything else it could sink them into. Unlike the Dogoos and more like the Horsebirds however, these ones didn't hunt in packs due to their large size and their sufficient combat ability, which could be considered one of the few silver linings when encountering these things. If there were to be a whole PACK of these things, then trouble would have surely followed on a large scale, a scale large enough to possibly include multiple CPUs. For weaknesses, these guys didn't have that many, either, aside from some weaker wind resistance there wasn't much else in terms of elemental affinities which could work on them.

This information processing passed through Alex's brain within the span of a few seconds, something which surprised the teen since it felt like he could… well, THINK faster than he had before, yet another change he noted to have taken place. 'Okay, now I REALLY have to figure out what happened to me,,, but for now, where did that scream come from…?' Alex mused mentally, his gaze casting itself across the desecrated battlefield. Soon, his gaze landed on someone, one of the sole human-looking occupants in this whole damn place as well as the first human whom he had come across since arriving in this city, as far as the teen felt anyways. He didn't really give her appearance a look down though, since the most OBVIOUS thing about her that he noticed first, had been that she had been pinned down under the claw of one Fenrir, much to his horror. 'Oh shit, that ain't good! Gotta work fast!' Alex thought, knowing just how carnivorous those things could be when their prey was struggling in the way the girl had been.

'Make it in time!'

With that in mind, Alex bent his legs before breaking forth into a mad sprint, putting as much energy as he could into his legs to get the maximum amount of speed he could. Perhaps he underestimated his current body though, cause in a couple seconds he managed to clear several meters worth of distance, though he didn't let that stop him from doing what he had to. "Oi, you with the twin-tails!" Alex called out, quickly jumping into a spinning helicopter kick which resulted in him slamming his right shin downwards into the Fenrir's mane, causing the creature to howl in surprise and pain as it got sent tumbling away from the young girl, setting her free. Landing on a crouch beside her, ignoring the startled look which she sported, Alex quickly got up and offered a hand to her, his eyes shining with the urgency of the situation. "Take my hand! C'mon, we gotta skedaddle before ol' wolfie recovers!"

Turned out it didn't take long for the girl to agree,her eyes gaining composure instead of that frightened yet resigned look he had seen her sporting from earlier. "G-Got it!" she bellowed, taking his hand and getting to her feet. By the time she did so, other monsters began to notice them, and as such neither of them doubted that they would be swarmed if they were to stick around here any longer, so like any sane person would in their situation, Alex and the girl quickly skedaddled out of there as fast as their legs could carry them… well, more on the girl's maximum pace since Alex doubted she would be able to move as fast as him.

* * *

About 10 minutes later, the two finally stopped running, Alex's instincts having told him that they were no longer being followed. "... Phew, I think that… they've lost our scents now…" the teen mused, glancing about whilst looking for signs of any attackers incoming. One of the things which had changed about him, not just his physical ability, was his keen sense of danger perception, proof being back when he had narrowly evaded that sneak attack from that Scorpion monster. He may have trained his senses since he had been young, but the fact that he had felt that tiny bit of KI which had alerted him, now that he thought more on it, felt like something he wouldn't have been normally able to do. Not to mention that aside from that monster ambush he'd went through, he had managed to keep avoiding any similar instances from happening again. Nonetheless, it didn't take away from the fact that he had just went through another harrowing experience just now, and it had left him mentally drained. That had been one of the few times he had ever felt so terrified for his life, not counting the time with that damn scorpion monster. His mother had warned him that the outside world was dangerous once he'd left his hometown, but Alex didn't expect it to be like THIS! What the hell was happening here? Just then, some shuffling alerted him to the girl whom he'd saved, making him glance over to her momentarily worried that she had been hurt from the attack or some prior experience. "Yeah…?"

"Well, um… My hand…?"

The girl responded, looking down nervously. Huh? What gother so uncomfortable? Her hand? They had JUST barely escaped the jaws of death just now, a second time from his perspective, so what was making her all fidgety? It could have been the shock of the experience, since civilians first encountering a Monster, especially a horde like that tended to be that way for a while, or something else. Alex momentarily arched a brow in confusion at her words, so he decided to follow her train of sight dowards. That resulted in him noticing that their hands were still connected, prompting Alex to quickly make the connection and hurriedly pull his hand away, his features becoming flushed with embarrassment. "O-Oh, sorry…" he hurriedly apologized with a stutter in his voice. 'Thank GOD that none of the guys from my hometown are here, the teasing that they'd do to me would be endless…' the teen thought to himself, mentally shuddering at the potential humiliation he had unknowingly avoided… ESPECIALLY since the 'guys' he'd mentioned had wanted to follow him on his journey here, though he'd told them to watch over his family instead.

Seeing his slightly panicked state, the girl gave him a small smile as well as an amused chuckle, mirth shining within her crimson eyes while she covered her mouth with the tips of her fingers. As he thought about it, Alex found himself almost mystified by the voice she had, it sounded sweet like music to his ears. Part of him wondered if she had a boyfriend, cause if she did then that lucky guy would definitely have his respect. What, Alex had this sort of thing going on where he liked to tell if a girl was in a relationship or not, mostly due to how he'd been raised by his mom. Not to mention that her reaction got him to give her a look over, and he had to admit that the girl DEFINITELY had the category 'beautiful' applied to her, in fact she may surpass the various females back in his hometown in terms of beauty, something which had once been joked about by some of his friends back then though he hadn't really believed them. Today was just FULL of surprises, today, huh? "No need to worry. I mean, you DID save me back there…" she calmly responded, assuring him which came in the form of a sigh of relief from Alex.

"Yeah, that's true…" the male mused, holding an easygoing smile as he rubbed the back of his head out of nervousness. He DID just save her life back there, and part of him couldn;t help but be thankful that he had managed to get there when he did. Fenrirs didn't tend to show mercy when killing their prey, they ripped, torn and shredded their prey into barely recognizable remains before eating them. Some even left corpses behind as a means to mark their territory of if they had eaten their fill. Though, it didn't take him long to adopt a serious, concerned demeanor, his face reflecting these emotions as he glanced back to where they had come from worriedly. His mind replayed the experience that the two of them had just gone through with worrying implications beginning to surface, "Though I'll admit, I've never seen monsters group up and attack as if they were MMO players gathering for a large-scale raid like that. Makes me wonder what the heck could have caused something like that to be a thing."

At that, the young girl gained a sad look, crossing her arms beneath her chest as she looked to the side. "Yeah… it's strange…" she mumbled, getting his attention again since warning bells erupted in his mind thanks to the depressed, downright defeated tone she had adopted. "But, more than that, why? Why did you save me? I mean, I'm completely helpless now… even if i'm saved, it's not like I can do anything, I can't even fight…" she mumbled, getting increasingly depressed the more words escaped from her mouth. Like a mask slowly cracking, the girl's shoulders dropped down to an all time low (no he didn't mean the song) as tears started building in the corners of her eyes.

'Whoa there, someone's gone dark and moody all of a sudden…' Alex mentally noted about the girl, whose body now exuding an aura of darkness and depression that it even started making HIM feel depressed. It didn't look like normal depression either, he'd seen this kind of thing before back with his mom whenever she got hit hard in the life department. People who got dealt a bad hand all of a sudden when things were just about going their way, only for their footholds to be suddenly swiped away from under them, causing them to take a drastic nosedive. That felt pretty much like the gist of the feelings he got from the girl right now, but Alex couldn't be certain. He couldn't even BEGIN to understand just what was going on within her mindset, though perhaps he could ask her about it. She seemed to have been here longer than him, so maybe there was a chance she had a better idea of the situation taking place here, only then did Alex feel like he'd be able to lend a helping hand to this young girl. This sad and depressing look she had on right now did NOT look good on her, not in the slightest. "Well… before that, mind if you could tell me what happened here? I've only just arrived from outside, so I'm not sure… Though if you want we can switch to a different topic first, its up to you."

"Huh?" THAT seemed to jolt her out of her depressed state, if only momentarily. Something which Alex had to thank himself for doing so, as well as note how despite that state she had been responsive enough to hear him, so maybe there was hope for him to help her get through whatever problem was bothering her? One could only hope. "O-Oh, I see. That makes sense, you don't really look like your someone from around here…" she muttered, only now realizing this fact after looking him up and down a bit. If the clothes didn't give that away enough, then his confused bod language definitely did. "I-Its okay though, since there's no need for me to be so guarded before… mind hearing me out for a bit?" she questioned, though Alex didn't miss the fact she had talked more to herself at the halfway point of her sentence just then.

"Shoot."

A sad, tired sigh escaped her lips after she and Alex got into comfortable seating arrangements. The place they had stopped at simply looked like any other street, and Alex had guided her to a bench on the sidewalk for an easier time talking, something she had readily accepted at this point, before she began to talk about her tale although Alex got the instinctual suspicion she had abridged it somewhat for some reason. "I made a stupid mistake, and now I've lost a lot of things important to me." she told him, looking down at her hands which rested on her lap, clumped together as her crimson orbs swam with varying emotions. Nostalgia, sadness, happiness and joy naming some of them as she continued speaking, although it almost felt like she was just letting out the water from the taps that were her emotional restraints at this point. "All the bonds I'd made, the laughter of the people, and this city's peace… Even my powers are all gone." she explained, a bitter and twisted laugh escaping her lips. "So, that's why I basically threw in the towel.. I figured nothing else would work, even if I tried with all my might. What was it all for, anyway? Where did it get me in the end? Completely worthless…" She sounded like that was more directed towards herself than him right then, but Alex just kept listening. "What did I do wrong? Everything I did was for Lastation! This sucks! It's so unfair!"

'I think I'm starting to see the picture here… as well as who this girl really is. Powers, everything she did being for Lastation, importance to her… If she's who I think she is, well, she may need this more than anything…' Alex thought as he saw her smack her fist against the bench space between them, a grunt of frustration escaping alongside the wail she'd made at the end with tears streaming down her cheeks like twin rivers. For a moment she stayed in this trembling state, her shoulders shaking and Alex doing all he could not to give in to his inner desire to give this girl a hug. He didn't like seeing girls cry, heck he didn't like seeing anyone cry, it made him feel bad inside and made him want to comfort them. Eventually she managed to stop the waterworks for the time being, probably due to him being near her, as she wiped her tears away leaving her slightly bloodshot eyes. A sad, lonely smile formed on her lips afterwards, a pointless realization dawning on her. "Though, I doubt a human boy would understand…"

… Okay, now he had the complete picture here, it may lack the finer details, but Alex soon found he could see JUST how he could help this poor girl, and to start he needed to correct her on something she'd said. "See, you probably shouldn't do that, this assuming thing you've got going on here." Alex replied after a few seconds and a sigh, pocketing his hands inside his trousers as he stood up, causing Noire to look at him and blink in confusion as well as surprise. A sound matching those words escaped her lips as he continued. "You assume that nobody would have a SHRED of understanding of your plights due to the differences between you, right? That's more wrong than you realize. You say you made a big mistake right? One which understandably has bitten you in the backside and hard, if I do say so myself, otherwise you wouldn't be in this mess."

"Eh? Well, thats…"

"Then it essentially boils down to the fact that you made a mistake, which isn't special. Even the average NPC makes mistakes, some bigger than others which causes them to feel like they've hit rock bottom with no way out. Politicians, leaders, people in power basically, they think that their problems aren't like that of ordinary people, when in reality that's completely wrong. Their problems boil down to several simple facts: They're dealing with a tough situation that, if handled poorly, would end with them in a worse position than they had previously. Tell me that's not something ANYONE can relate to." he told her, stopping the girl from speaking. Saif girl then tried to open her mouth, but then closed it, repeating the process several times but not being able to find much of a way in the form of a counterargument. She FINALLY came up with one, but he beat her to the speaking thing. "You may argue that the scale is different, but to me that doesn't matter, the fact of the matter is that like anyone else, people in power are still that, people. I'll let you in on something: in this world there isn't anything like KOs like in fighting matches. The one who gets beat down isn't the loser. The one who can't tough it out to the end, they're the ones who lose."

Those words at the end caused the girl to gap, going wide eyed as she lost control over her jaw. The moment that Alex spoke those words, it felt as though they struck a chord in her, snapping her mind out of its depressed funk as she stared up towards the teen. Said teen then crouched before her, keeping his gaze locked onto hers so she could see the seriousness and ferocity his green orbs conveyed with 100% clarity. "A single loss is NOTHING to the grand road of life. A single mistake or two? Not much to worry about. You hit rock bottom? So what, that's nothing special. As long as you're alive, you'll be able to keep getting up for more. That is the way life's MEANT to be lived, so to those who say they don't want any mistakes… they truly aren't living." At the end, a small smirk formed on his lips, his eyes twinkling with strength, passion and resolve, as if he truly believed the words coming out of his mouth.

"E-Even so… I'm at a loss." the black haired girl replied, still absolutely dumbstruck by what the human boy before her had spoken. If this were any other circumstances she would have lashed out in aner, berated him for his disrespect and maybe even hunted him down to make him pay for such nonsense. However, thanks to the recent events happening to the City of Lastation, the moment she heard those words, she… well, she couldn't really explain it herself, but they lit something inside of her. A spark, a spark which she had not felt for a long time, a spark which ignited into a flame inside of her chest. Her eyes reflected this, as well as the slight upturning of her lips, although doubt was still persisting. "What should I do now…?" she questioned while looking to the side and away from the intense green orbs staring her down. "It's not like I have anyone who can help me, and i'm unable to fight against those Monsters as I am now..."

At this, Alex just laughed as he stood up tall. "That's an easy one, Mrs. You let me help ya there." he stated whilst pointing a thumb towards himself with the right corner of his lips showing his pearly white teeth. At her surprised exclamation, he continued as his lips morphed into a full-blown grin, relief in his heart knowing that her sadness was slowly disappearing. "You saw what I did back there, and no way am I staying around whilst those mangy gits are tearing this place apart. So, you got me on your side, and there's no way in hell I'm abandoning you, so that should count for something."

Staring at him, that was all that the girl did, or rather all she COULD do, with the emotions flooding her system. As much as the leader inside of her wished to reject the notions which Alex had been spewing to her, she couldn't help the… refreshing feeling that they gave off. It felt like she could breathe normally again, knowing that right now she was going through something similar to what her people had been going through on a daily basis. She'd been leading so many successive victories in the past that, well, she'd not admit this to anyone, but perhaps she'd become rather cynical and cocky from how high she'd been due to the power. In fact, these words and the following revelations that they came with, how on point, blunt and straight to the point they were, it came as a nice change from all the tricks and deceit she'd had to watch for in the past.

In the end…

She could hardly contain her laughter, something which caused Alex's grin to widen. Whilst laughing, she held her gut with one arm, using the other to grip the bench beside her as a means of support. Her laughter echoed for a dozen seconds, until she managed to catch herself, though even then the black haired girl still had some tears in her eyes that she tried to wipe away. "You're a weird one, all right… Kind of like this old wise man or something even though you look like a teenager." she commented.

"Well, a few of my pals told me something similar." Alex replied, smirking as he remembered said 'pals', them sporting similar expressions to that of this girl whenever he gave them life advice. Him, a teenager who hadn't experienced all that much of the world compared to them, though in this case the words he'd been spouting had been taught to him in turn, taught to him by someone whom he'd come to respect.

A few more chuckles escaped her lips after his words were said, though in the end it succeeded in its purpose of cheering her up, so Alex counted that as a job well done. Standing up from the bench, the blackette tapped herself down as if trying to wipe away some imaginary dust. A low exhale escaped her lips as she let the tension leave her body. "Whew… Okay. I feel better already." she commented, smiling down at Alex who stood up after her.

"That's good, then. So-"

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The moment that sound reached their ears, both the girl and Alex's faces twisted into sour expressions, shifting their heads towards its direction like they had just tasted something sour. Trouble came a knocking JUST when things seemed to be getting better for the two of them, trouble in the form of a pack of monsters, a pack which came from the southern entrance though it looked more like a small detachment of them. Their numbers consisted of a bunch of Dogoos which bounced along the street, hopping onto property such as vehicles and anything smaller than them, which wasn't much, and dissolving whatever they touched. Apparently, that's how they feed, they take things into themselves, sometimes not through their mouths, and then dissolve them inside. Following them was a large Fenrir, one which just so happened to be drooling with saliva from its open maw, its eyes shimmering with murderous bloodlust as it prowled the streets, looking for any unfortunate victim to tear into. Up above, a couple Horsebirds flapped their wings as they flew about, tearing into the sides of buildings with their deceptively powerful jaws whilst kicking at the walls with enough force to create craters in their forms. One could only be glad that there weren't any bystanders nearby, despite the damage being caused to the city, otherwise this could be a MUCH gorier scene.

"Tch, looks like these things REALLY want to sign their death warrants…" The black haired girl remarked whilst growling in anger, her eyes narrowing as a fiery 'spark' lit up in her crimson eyes, her fists clenched and trembling beside her as she started striding towards the Monsters, determination blazing about her. "Look, your obviously not from around here, so you don't need to be involved in this any further." she told him without looking at the teen. In her eyes, this guy may have been able to psyche her back up from that dark corner she had fallen into from her own mistakes, but in the end he was still just a civilian. It wasn't like she could ask him to just stay here and risk getting his hide ripped apart by these creatures. That wouldn't reflect well on her as a person not to mention as someone meant to protect those under her.

Hearing that caused Alex's eyes to narrow, even as he saw the silhouette of someone eerily similar to himself from his spot behind her. "How, see the problem with that is…" he began, before proceeding to step forwards and start walking beside her. He even made the motion of rolling his right shoulder whilst rolling his sleeves back, prepping for one heck of a beatdown. "Is that I'd not be a real man if I left you alone to deal with these things for something petty as safety."... Was it creepy that had the gall to say all this all the while sporting a rather bone-chilling smile which could even make some of the worst slashers out there wet themselves, or was it just imaginary?

Whelp, it wasn't like something that the girl found herself concerned with. Instead she looked like she wanted to continue this little argument, but the sounds of monsters tearing apart the city in front of her turned her attention to them. The girl gritted her teeth as a conflict arose within her, on the one hand, she didn't want to get the guy who helped her involved when he could potentially lose his life before she had a chance to repay him for his help. It wouldn't do well for her, plus she didn't want anyone in the city to suffer for her mistakes. On the other hand, however, it didn't look like anything she could say would get through to the guy through his thick skull, not to mention she had heard many times from countless sources how men can be quite stubborn in times like these, either from her comrades or fellow staff members. In the end, she gave a groan of frustration and gave up on trying to persuade Alex from obviously putting his life in danger, so she just decided to let him do whatever the heck he wanted, throwing her arms up in the air whilst sighing. "Fine, whatever, I don't care l just have to handle this and protect you, then!" she bellowed, throwing her arm to the side.

When she did so, her hand was outstretched as a series of pixels seemed to form from out of nowhere, spiralling as they gathered around her hand and elongated into a weapon. The pixels then exploded into nothingness, leaving behind a weapon in her hand, one which looked to be a traditional Longsword which she held like a rapier. Gripping the sword within her right hand's grasp, the girl got into a battle stance which involved her pivoting so that her right side faced the enemy, her Longsword pointing downwards diagonally with her left being put behind her. Her eyes remained ablaze as a determined scowl formed on her lips, the monsters each noticing her approach. "Alright you lot, too late for regrets!" She bellowed, making sure that each of them heard her, something which succeeded and proof of this came when the Monsters all eyed her, stopping their previous actions. The Horsebirds made a sound akin to a mix between a chirp and a neigh as they landed atop some overturned vehicles, Dogoos bounced up and down with yelps of excitement being released from them, and the Feniri gave a bloodthirsty snark, scraping the ground with its claws.

In short, it looked like a bloodbath would be soon to follow…

Something which happened not long after when the girl broke into a mad sprint, heading towards the Monsters which responded in kind. Contrary to what one might expect, the Fenrir actually hung back as it observed the prey before it, letting the weaker 'mobs' in its eyes take the fall so it could gauge its prey's abilities and choose the ideal moment to attack. Hey, it WAS known as a dangerous level monster, its INT stat surpassed that of the plebs which had surrounded it like some stupid pack mentality!

Just as the two sides made to clash, it turned out that the Dogoos managed to start the first strike, about 3 of them jumping towards her with the intent of piling on top of her and… well, any female in Gamarket would know what they'd do next. In any case, the girl didn't let that happen as she swiftly swung her sword three times in one second, slicing right through those Dogoos in one moment. She'd swung downwards vertically, then horizontally from left to the right, and finally upwards vertically in the opposing motion, allowing her to use the momentum from killing those three Dogoos, which simply exploded into Pixels afterwards, to bring her Longsword to bear against a Horsebird which had tried to pull a certain black bowl-haired Ninja's trademark kick attack on her from her right side.

The two remained like that for a short while, the girl grimacing to herself when she felt the trembling of her Longsword against the Horsebird's hoof. 'So, with my lack of power, my STR stat's this low…? Unacceptable, simply unacceptable! I refused to allow this to continue, this must NOT remain the same! I simply MUST find a way to restore my powers then, as these chumps would have been mincemeat by now! I can't even use my SP Skills cause my power's so diminished!' Then, whilst she ranted in her mind, the girl glanced to her sides to perceive the incoming Dogoos, numbering about 6, 3 on each side. 'Hmph! Morons!' she thought in haughtiness and disdain, already having figured out their intentions with how little their INT stat seemed to be. Both sides intended to exploit the opportunity presented by the kicking Horsebird, but the girl didn't let them, instead choosing to wait till the last possible second then jumped backwards, letting them all slamm into one another like a bunch of furious and blood-crazed bulls ramming into their own kind.

Her instincts then warned her of danger coming from above, and noticed several Horsebirds coming down like kamikazes, numbering at around 3. The girl narrowed her crimson orbs at them, already forming a plan with data gleaned from her previous clash with these opponents, before she got into a crouch. Waiting till the last second, the girl then put as much energy into her legs as she could before hopping over one Horsebird, planting her feet into its back and using it as a Springboard to jump up to the other two, letting the first one fall onto the ground beneath them. As she flew upwards towards the other two, the girl closed her eyes as she reared her Longsword back for a horizontal slash, something which the Horsebirds didn't consider a threat as they made to charge straight into her chest, intending to knock her down into the ground below. However, that didn't happen, as instead the girl angled herself into a spin, not only avoiding their charges but seconds later dozens of deep slash marks and lacerations adorned their bodies, completely separating the two Horsebirds into tiny chunks which soon exploded into Pixels.

There wasn't any time or rest or celebration though, even as she had successfully dealt with the majority of the aerial Monsters which had been her intention from the beginning. The reason for this came in the form of a silhouette coming from the girl's rear left flank, causing her to turn towards the source. Her eyes widened in surprise as she gasped when she saw the Fenrir, which had gauged this as the perfect time to strike, having launched itself at her in a fantastic display of its jumping ability, its maw open wide to slam its teeth into her and, ideally, tear her in half. Fortunately for her, the girl managed to twist and spin herself out of the creature's flight path, using the momentum to flip backwards and slam her right foot into the creature's mane with enough force to shift its flight course right back down onto the ground below. When the two of them fell, the girl landed opposite the creature, whilst the Fenrir landed on top of the first Horsebird, completely flattening it to death with a horrified squeak and a dying neigh. Upon her landing, the girl had to roll across the ground to offset the impact, due to her powerbeing insufficient for her usual landing style, and used the momentum to get back to her feet, quickly assuming her stance before the Monster could attack again. Shame that there weren more Dogoos which had survived the initial attacks, something which caused her brow to twitch in annoyance as they converged around the Fenrir.

'This won't be pretty…'

* * *

Meanwhile...

'Tch, this ain't going to fly…' Alex thought, his eyes narrowing at the battle between his companion and the monsters, whilst he bit back the urge to snarl. As much as he had been proclaiming his masculinity by not leaving the girl behind, he saw the dire straits before him and wondered if he would be able to offer any assistance. With his current body, Alex felt confident that he wouldn't be kicking the bucket early on, but he wasn't sure what kind of limitations his body now possessed, and if there was ANYTHING he'd learned growing up, it would be that using a weapon one has no idea the specifics of can cause MAJOR problems further down the line. Of course, he could have used that other scorpion-like monster he'd fought before as a basis, but he'd only repelled that one, not outright killed it, so he wasn't sure on that fight's authenticity. 'At the very least, having a weapon on hand would do wonders for my chances. I may know some hand to hand combat, but it's nothing compared to my specialty in weapons. If I can just find something to use as a blunt or cutting tool against these creatures, I can at least deal with the Dogoos and Horsebirds, though I'd likely die if I were to fight that damn Fenir. Its known as Dangerous type enemy for a reason after all. Alright, I got my game plan…'

BA-BUMP!

SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-SIZZLE-!

'Ngh!'

The moment that he thought that, Alex proceeded to stride forwards with the girl already jogging in, intending to provide support to her like he had said he would. However, just as he made a few steps, Alex's eye sockets shot open wide, bulging enough to expose the veins within the said sockets when all of a sudden his right arm started to feel like it was burning… a lot. Like, it started feeling like he had dipped it shoulder deep into a batch of concentrated, pure lava as every cell making up the limb cried out in unified agony over the out-of-nowhere situation it had found itself in, forcing him to stop and fall onto one knee. Gritting his teeth so hard that he thought that they might snap, Alex muttered a few curses as he struggled to endure the feeling, not being able to even twitch anything throughout the arm as a whole. 'Wh… what the hell…? What's going on here!?' the teen painfully through the world of pain he'd found himself experiencing.

His situation did not go unnoticed, as both the Monsters as well as the black haired girl heard his pained groans, as well as the sizzling sounds which came from his arm, prompting them to turn their gaze towards him. "Hey dude, what the heck's the matter? You can't be going down on me now, what happened to what you…?" the girl began to say, before her ears twitched and she glanced back towards her opponents, who looked like they were about to make a move on her companion. Not on her watch, they didn't! With that thought in mind, the girl quickly dashed forth and got in front of them, staying between them and the madly trembling Alex behind her. Glancing behind her, she made to say something else… when out of the corner of her eye, she became witness to something… unnatural.

Finally, Alex could no longer take it as, with a mighty and agony-filled scream which tore itself free from his lips, he threw his right arm to the side and from thereon, the whole thing started to… transform, for lack of a better word. Out of nowhere, just like the scream a bunch of black Tendril-looking things, with some yellow glowing ones underneath, burst forth from his shoulder with blood splattering onto the ground beside him in an explosion of gore, remnants of yellow coloured smoke rising up from the limb as it morphed through one of the most gruesome, disgusting transformations anyone in Gamarket could ever see. Compared to the CPUs transformations, this one would be considered almost the exact opposite, with things like demonic, twisted and unsightly being more appropriate.

Fortunately, it didn't last long since the process finished quickly, and when it did Alex breathed heavily as he fell onto one knee, using his left hand for support. For a moment, all he could do was breathe heavily and erratically, his form trembling at the… violent, experience he had just gone through. He then glanced towards his right arm to see what had befallen it… and his breath left him just like everyone else who witnessed it. "Wha… the hell is…?!" he whispered, looking just like the victim of a horror movie just before their inevitable demise.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**(Play OST - I am All of Me)**

Cold and oppressive, with just the slightest addition of suffocation, potent enough that just breathing slightly proved to be a strenuous task.

That description summed up how the atmosphere around the girl, Alex and the Monsters felt to them right now as this new development took place. The girl herself couldn't believe what she was seeing, as would be expected of her if something like this were to happen, whereas internally she had a LOT of questions about what was going on, questions she wasn't sure would be answered even if she demanded them out of the one responsible for this. However, she damned well would try, if this proved to be a security risk for her people, then… but on the other hand she wanted to reserve judgement for the time being as, despite the major alarm bells ringing inside her head about this (that gory and grotesque transformation didn't help any, either), she didn't want to immediately assume things about him, especially since the guy looked just as affected as the rest of them.

Speaking of the rest…

'Wait, the monsters…' she thought, glancing back to them with the idea that they would surely try to take advantage of her companion's vulnerable state… only, she saw quite the opposite from them. The Fenrir growled and barked, with its beady eyes shaking uncontrollably as it scraped the ground beneath it with its paw, sweat rolling down its forehead whilst looking like it wanted to be anywhere but here all of a sudden. Similar signs formed from the Dogoos, whose facial features for the first time ever (according to her experiences, at the least) had shifted from their usual cute smiley faces to utterly TERRIFIED ones, their smiles curling upside down whilst they bounced around in wild, erratic patterns. It looked as though the only thing stopping them from fleeing the scene like a bunch of cowardly bitches was the fact that they still had the advantage of numbers, though to her that didn't seem like a very helpful fact… for them at least, the previous battle between her and them last chapter being proof enough for her. 'They're… they're scared? Of Alex?' she realized, thoroughly flabbergasted at the sight. 'Why? Monsters usually don't fear all that much, they instead try to just kill what they see as a threat, but right now they seem like they're about to piss themselves out of sheer horror. Just what is it that they're so afraid of...?'

"Okay… out of everything that's happened so far, THIS takes the cake for being the most unsettling…"

The cause of all this known only as Alex muttered under his breath as he slowly stood up, looking down towards his right arm (all the while ignoring the looks directed at him by the confused girl and the scared shitless monsters) with his expression of confused disbelief, unlike the fear one might normally expect should they ever go through what he had just done. When he looked at his right arm, he could scarcely call it an arm at this point, as from the shoulder, the Tendrils seemed to emerge from deep within his skin, since he could see their outlines from their protrusion points beneath his flesh. The blacker than night Tendrils, having connected to one another with an illuminating yellow glow forming from their centre, travelled down what used to have been his arm, ending at his forearm… for THERE was where the similarities to a human arm ended. The forearm itself seemed to have been enlarged, twisted and moulded into the shape of a Pincer of all things with a size resembling the limb of a professional bodybuilder, the two claws being as long as a human arm with a metallic make, sharp tips and jagged internal edges to boot. A single cylindrical structure protruded out from the top of the forearm's base at the elbow joint, pointing forwards as if it were a scope or a laser sight with a targeting reticle or something.

In essence, this arm could hardly be called human anymore, more like that of a monster, really.

Although…

Didn't this thing look a lot like that Pincer arm he's lobbed off that Scorpion monster before?

Now that he thought about it, he did see the resemblance to it somewhat, only it looked to have the black and yellow colour scheme which Alex's arm had begun sporting thanks to this new transformation. 'Meh, I'll think about that later, because right now, I gotta fight to win...' the teen thought when he looked towards the Monsters. For some reason, seeing his gaze on them caused the creatures to jump as if they had their hearts shooting out their mouths or something, Alex wasn't sure why but he wasn't complaining. In addition, as he swung the Pincer about, experimentally trying to see if it could move and resulting in the limb snipping its long claws repeatedly, Alex swore he could understand EXACTLY how this thing worked. Like, instinctively, as if he had always had this thing his whole life, practically grew up with it. 'After all, can't let my companion do ALL the work whilst I slouch back here, now can I?' With that declaration ringing through his mind, Alex smirked over to his companion as he stepped beside her, keeping his new weapon away from her because he didn't want to accidentally hurt her. "So then, shall we get this party started? You cover me and i'll cover you?"

"E-Eh? Cover me?! Aren't I the one who's supposed to be covering for you?! That's pretty much how it works around here…" the blackette exclaimed, though when she glanced down at the dangerous looking Pincer, she quickly changed her tune whilst huffing as she glanced to the side. "Well, I guess I can make an exception… but just this once, you hear?" As she said this, though, her eyes widened when she felt something 'jolt' through her system like an electric spark, one which soon became an electric current which coursed through every pathway through her body. 'Huh?! My powers…. They're coming back? Well, that's a relief, so I didn't lose them entirely…! Although they somewhat feel a little funny, a little different than what i'm used to, they're still being powered by newly gained Shares! With this, and with whatever's happening to Alex over here… yeah, we can take these guys!' She realized, a small smirk forming on her features as a dull white light began to envelop her. "So, just so we're clear… you said you'll cover for me, so does that mean… you'll put your faith in me as your CPU?"

'Yup, she just confirmed it, she's Black Heart, AKA Noire…' Alex thought to himself, readying his Pincer by pointing it forwards like he were holding a Kendo sword in one hand with the other hidden behind his back. With this revelation which he had pretty much seen coming from a mile away, Alex got an idea of the significance behind that question… though it still didn't change his answer to it very much. "Sure, you got it." He replied, his Pincer snipping several times just to scare the monsters some more… something he honestly felt he could get used to, since he first experienced it. What? These guys terrorized him and other humans for a long time now, so he would GLADLY like to return the favour!

Hearing his response only amplified the electric current rushing through her being right now. It wasn't NEARLY as strong as what she had once felt when she'd been at the peak of her power, but just this alone caused waves of warmth and comfort to spread through her body. 'Even if it's still just one person… There's still someone out there that believes in me… it's something so simple, yet it feels so good…'she absentmindedly thought as she readied her sword once again for the next bout… a bout she knew for a FACT wouldn't be the last. Not when there were still WAY more Monsters scattered throughout her City doing goddess knows what to it. She'd have one heck of a mess to clean up after this, but it'd be worth it just to get Lastation back up and running again.

Finally, the light completely enveloped her, shrouding her from view whilst carrying her slightly off the ground and into the air. Alex and the Monsters had to cover their eyes in their own unique ways (paw for the Fenir, closing eyelids for the Dogoos and the Pincer for Alex), but when it died down, the massive sword wielding swordstress of Lastation took the blackette's place. She floated there with her aura flared dangerously around her, electrical energy crackling around her signature weapon as she held it at the ready. "Alright, let's do this!"

In that moment, both of them charged towards the Monsters, whom quickly responded in kind. "I'll go after the small fry. You handle the big fish, that sound good?!" Alex called out to his companion, getting an affirmative sound from her in return, prompting a small smirk to form on his lips. Whilst he would have liked to destroy that Fenir with this new weapon of his, he hadn't a shred of the confidence of his proficiency with this weapon as he would have if he had something he'd trained in. He'd have to start at square one, even with the instincts ingrained into him on how to use this weapon, until he had properly grasped how to fight with it. Therefore, he'd settle for the smaller monsters this time, so he could then get some fighting experience down so in the future he could move up to the bigger boys. Who knows, maybe by the time he met that Scorpion monster he would be able to completely kill it, but that would be a story for another time.

Upon seeing how Black Heart separated both herself and the Cerberus with her newly restored power boost amping her physical abilities, Alex focused on the Dogoos, noticing one of them being about to leap at him from his left flank. Whilst it did so, several others were circling around to strike from multiple angles, their intention obviously being to overwhelm him with their remaining numbers, immobilise him and then leave him helpless to be finished off. It's a common thing for Dogoos to do in order to defeat larger predators, especially if they had a capable leader, as it had been documented thoroughly in the Guild's database. 'Well, that's not going to fly…' he thought, his mind processing the situation quickly and coming up with an optimal solution.

Sliding to a halt, Alex sharply pivoted around on his right foot, twirling himself around so that he would make a reverse horizontal slashing motion. This made it so that not only did he avoid the first Dogoo's strike, but his Pincer carved its way through 2 or 3 of its brethren like they were nothing but swiss cheese, its claws gleaming menacingly as they shredded through their slime-like flesh. Sadly, he didn't get any kills with the weapon at that moment, since he had been sloppy and barely missed their vital areas, but that would change. Using the momentum left from his attack, Alex followed up with a lunging motion towards the first Dogoo, whom had failed to notice in time and wound up being caught in-between the Pincer's claws. "DOGOOOO!" The creature squealed like a pig, struggling with all its might to break free of the massive Pincer which, to its dismay, held a firm, vice-like grip on it. It even tried to melt into a liquidy slime-like state so it could slip on through the weapon, however with a quick 'SNIP' that action only served to quicken its doom, with the Dogoo being snipped right into two halves as if it were cut by a pair of finely sharpened scissors.

'#WHISTLE# geez, this thing is sharp… Huh?'

Just as Alex made to marvel at the weapon's ability for a moment, he suddenly felt a burning sensation overcome his entire body, which actually looked to have come alive with a will of its own at this moment what with all the black and yellow Tendrils which swirled over his flesh like a bunch of frenzy-induced snakes. Several dozen of these Tendrils leapt off his back, grabbing onto those two pieces of dead slime before they had a chance to disintegrate into Particles… or rather, they didn't even TRY to do the whole death into particles thing and instead allowed the Tendrils to snag onto them. With their prey grabbed, the Tendrils coiled around the halves like the snakes which he had used as a reference earlier, all before pulling back into his body and taking the two halves of the dead Dogoo inside of him. Alex nearly had a heart attack, and would have shuddered in a most disturbed manner when he saw the two halves… melt inside of his chest within the Tendrils' grasp like they did, but he had other things to note: like how his whole body shuddered upon their entry as Tendrils rippled over his form from his head to his hands and feet like one big radar wave.

"Okay… that was weird…" Alex muttered under his breath, before he noticed something else. "But hey… for some reason, I feel stronger now, like I just ate a decently proportioned meal… interesting." he added onto his previous statement, but he didn't get any further than that since a Dogoo tried to strike at him from behind, several cartoonish puffs of smoke coming from its head as a form of fury and its actions being a result of it trying to avenge its dead comrade. However, Alex reacted on reflex, twirling around and raising his Pincer in a blocking motion. The moment that it implanted itself onto the structure, the Dogoo howled in pain from the collision as it got sent bouncing across the battleground, its comrades quickly converging on it whilst forgetting about him for the time being. 'So, this thing has some defence to it as well, huh…? Well, that's good to know.' the black haired teen thought, once again looking down at the Pincer with an impressed gaze. 'Now then, so this thing has some decent offense and defence capabilities, though since I'm fighting Dogood only it might be that this thing may lose its effectiveness over time, so… let's see what this thing's TRUE capabilities are…'

Thanks to feeling like he instinctively knew how this weapon worked, Alex felt that he hadn't even BEGUN to demonstrate this Pincer's full potential. As a result of this, he tapped into those instincts once more, having figured out how to do so during the brief exchange he'd had with the Dogoos, and pointed the Pincer towards the regrouping Monsters. When he did this, Alex's arm 'twitched', which turned out to be the sole warning said Monsters got before something else took place within the Pincer itself. The two claws froze stiff, losing any and all motion for the briefest of seconds, before they opened up like a human mouth whenever it released a yawn, revealing what looked like a… palm, of sorts which Alex guessed was what remained of his hand thanks to this transformation or whatever it was. The palm then proved him wrong with its identity when, in the next instance, it elongated and stretched forth, becoming a slightly longer organic black barrel which had a similar shape to that of an anti-tank rifle.

Without waiting for the group of Dogoos to react, Alex mentaly commanded the Pincer to do its thing…

And from there things went to shit, for the Dogoos anyways, as the barrel began to light up in a pure yellow colour, almost looking like it was charging up an attack based off solar energy, until it shot out a single round forth towards them. The round itself took the form of an arrowhead, but made from multiple small arrowheads, and when the Pincer fired the round Alex got sent sliding backwards from the recoil… although he didn't care about that. Not when he saw what happened to the Dogoos as the round shot right through their centre ranks, shredding through anything in its path as it rotated rapidly like a Drill. The Dogoos didn't stand a ghost of a chance, and even those which weren't in the round's flight path didn't get spared thanks to the winds that it generated being sharp enough to act like blades all on their own, resulting in each of them being shredded beyond any hope of staying alive, resulting in instant death for the lot of them.

…

…

…

…

…

"... Wow."

Honestly, that was all which Alex could say about the matter, his eyes wide whilst looking incredibly DUMBSTRUCK by what he had just seen the round do. He almost didn't believe what he'd seen, but the fact that Tendrils has come out of him again to grab, pull in and absorb the pieces inside of him kind of forced him to see what had happened as fact. Slowly, he let his PIncer return to its original form, the barrel sliding back into the space between the two metallic claws which also returned to their original positions, making him imagine the shifting being accompanied by mechanical whirring sounds instead of the sounds of flesh being torn that accompanied this process. 'Huh… so this thing's primarily a ranged weapon, but it can also be used as a close combat tool too. Now THIS is a weapon which I can get behind…' the teen thought as his shock quickly became replaced with eager excitement, kind of like a young boy receiving his first ever toy robot from his parents on his birthday. What a time to be alive!

**(OST ends)**

He didn't get a chance to remain like this for long though, since the sounds of Black Heart fighting the Fenir forced him back into reality. Blinking several times as he returned to focus, Alex's eyes narrowed as he glanced over, wanting to see just how the battle between the two was going. Even though Black Heart had seemingly regained her powers, it seemed as though she wasn't NEARLY as strong as she had once been. Alex didn't get why he felt this way, but he just did… and soon the teen figured out why. Black Heart had commented about how she had lost all her power before, and from rumours he'd heard it seemed as though she had the majority of the Cities throughout Gamarket under her Nation's banner. That must have meant her power had been the greatest out of the four CPUs at that moment, but then something happened, and all that power just… vanished. Just like that. Therefore, she had to start again from scratch, based on how she'd managed to transform just from his faith alone, though this only made sense since how could one person's faith compare to that of nearly an entire world? Thus, she wasn't at her strongest nor at her best unless she had more followers and believers giving her their faith.

With these thoughts in mind, Alex quickly aimed his Pincer towards the Fenrir's backside, the said Monster having just gotten away from a clash with the CPU, the two of them landing opposite one another with a good 20 meters distance put between them. Whilst he'd done this motion, Alex had assessed the damage that the beast had sustained, and he had to admit that for someone in her weakened state, Black Heart had done some significant progress whilst he had been testing his new Pincer. Not only did she manage to wound it on it's left hind leg, but there were bloody gashes over its back, gashes which dropped the life liquid down its sides and onto the ground below. Furthermore, its right claw looked to have been marred with blade scratches, proof of how many times it had used the limb to counter the slashes Black Heart had made against it.

Seeing it like this made him believe that it would only take one last push to take the beast down. With that in mind, Alex mentally commanded his Pincer to enter its 'Rifle Mode' as he would now dub the alternate form that his Pincer could take for its ranged offensive abilities. The Pincer claws re-aligned following the sounds of flesh extending whilst the Barrel elongated past them, aiming towards his opponent's backside with the intent of finishing the fight off himself. As he felt the weapon create its round, Alex also noticed a… weakening feeling throughout his system, overcoming him causing his vision to blur slightly which elected a wince from the teen. 'Ugh… this feeling… feels like my head's in a vice…' Alex thought, holding his head with his free untransformed hand to try and soothe the exploding headache within the confines of his skull.

Unfortunately for him, this resulted in Alex letting loose his prepared shot at an angle which wouldn't end up hitting his target. Instead, the fired projectile slammed into the ground beside it, destroying it and forming a crater large as well as deep enough to trap an average vehicle inside. 'Shit! I let it off by accident! Note to self, this mode takes a lot of energy out of me, so only use it when I'm SURE I have enough to make a clear shot…' Alex cursed himself mentally, although fortune DID throw him a bone in the following seconds. A startled cry escaped the Fenrir's bloodied maw when it suddenly lost the footing that it once had, being helpless against the fate about to befall it as it fell into the crater onto its back. The dirt mixed in with its blood as it fell, aggravating its wounds and causing it to whimper like a scared puppy… although that wouldn't do a THING to deter the two fighters from what they would do next.

"Judging from your state, I assume that you've finished things on your end, then?"

"Yup, I did Lady Black Heart, managed to figure a few things out too, but let's talk about that AFTER we finish up here."

"...You're right, I want to make sure these Monsters are wiped out so they don't do any more damage to my City. You did your part, now let me finish off this beast."

A short conversation took place between the two whilst Alex, who wore a sheepish expression when the CPU gave him an accusing stare for his sneak attack, also managed to delay the conversation which he dreaded the most: the one detailing how he got these abilities. It wasn't that he was afraid of her reaction, although part of him WAS worried about that, but it was mostly due to him lacking much information at all. All he knew was when the changes began and what kinds of changes he had observed so far. Thanks to this battle, he had an idea of what it COULD be, but he wanted to be absolutely certain. However, since this was Black Heart he had been talking to, he figured she would demand an explanation about this no matter what he said, so Alex decided to delay it for the time being with the current problem. Luckily for him, that served to succeed. With that said, Black Heart narrowed her eyes down at the Fenrir as it scrambled to get up onto its feet, ignoring the pain it felt from its wounds thanks to the dirt aggravating them. "I'll finish this thing myself." she proclaimed, jumping up into the air (although Alex didn't know how the hell this could be a thing, since she literally has been floating above the ground this whole time) in order to angle herself above the Monster.

"Alright you, time to show you the TRUE power of Lastation's CPU!"

That bellow escaped her lips as Black Heart shot down towards the Fenrir like a bullet, her large Sword crackling dangerously with energy which formed streaks hat constantly flew off the blade's edge. As such, the moment she dove into the crater, Black Heart wasted no time in slashing apart the Fenrir without mercy, her ears recording the sounds of its pained howls as she hacked away, pouring every ounce of her energy into this strike, alongside every bit of emotion she had felt since all of this had begun. One could almost call this her form of therapy, as well as a means of venting the feelings she'd still retained even after that heart to heart talk she'd had with Alex.

When she finished killing off the Fenrir which had its severed remains explode into pixels, Black Heart felt the compulsory need to grill Alex for information about that strange and admittingly grotesque transformation of his, but she pushed it down for the time being. After all, these monsters may be dead, but there were still more which were freely rampaging throughout her City. She needed to take care of those first before she could even BEGIN to interrogate the guy. Glancing up towards the crater's edge, Black Heart eyed her companion who stood there with his Pincer at the ready. "We still got a LOT more work to do, you know. If you want you can…"

"Like I said I'm not going to leave you alone, so count me in if your fighting the others."

"...got it."

* * *

To that end, both Black Heart and Alex raced off, heading back to the southern entrance to see if the Monsters were still there, and if not track them down through the destruction which they left in their wake. Fortunately, it seemed as though the majority of the horde's numbers still remained at the Southern Gate, having not finished tearing it apart just yet. As such, it became childsplay for the two to deal with them, with Alex… eating? Nah, consuming felt like a better word for it, but anyways he consumed every Monster he'd come across much to Black Heart's morbid curiosity. It confirmed to him that he could gain power from another being this way at least, not to mention that it supplied his Pincer's Rifle Mode with the energy it needed to create its ammunition, so it worked out in the end. Unfortunately though, it seemed that the horde consisted mostly of Dogoos and Fenrirs now, with the Horsebirds having been taken out of the equation quickly by Black Heart, so Alex didn't have too much variety in his killings.

Whilst they fought through the battles, Alex had gradually proceeded to notice something about himself which had changed, and that was his clothing. In fact, he no longer recognized the outfit he wore, and when he tried to figure out the cause, a rippling wave of Tendrils soon answered his queries. The moment that it finally dawned on him, he would have freaked the heck out since he now looked like some stupid emo edgelord who'd been trying way too hard to look cool…. If he hadn't been trying to avoid getting his nuts bit off by a sneak attack from a Fenrir. Therefore, he came to the conclusion that whatever had happened to him he had been able to shift his Clothes into something else, something which he'd subconsciously thought about during the entire conflict as it sparked memories of some things in his mind.

In essence, by the time that he noticed this, Alex's outfit now had completely changed. Now, he wore a long (reaching down to his ankles like a Trench Coat), open sleeveless leather coat which split into three coat-tails behind him, whereas beneath that was a dark grey hoodie. He also wore black pants with a silver chain made up of skulls on the right side of his belt and fingerless riding gloves on his hands, whereas his feet were covered by some black military boots with silver buckles on the backs of the feet.

Though, when the Horsebirds died they did so the same as the Fenirir trapped in the crater that Black Heart had finished off did. That was what was SUPPOSED to happen all the time, so why didn't it happen to the Monsters which Alex had consumed? What was so different about him now that he would make it so where the Dogoos, monsters residing in Gamarket, acted completely unlike what they were normally meant to? He'd wondered this many times up till now, bu just WHAT the heck is going on within his body?!

Nevertheless, Alex couldn't focus on it more since Black Heart had landed before him, her sword drenched in the Fenrir's blood, something which quickly drew his attention. For some reason, that blood just looked so… tantalizing, to the point where if it were a professional hypnotist, then it would have quickly hooked him under its spell. 'Blood… the smell of blood is coming from her sword… Why is it that it smells so good…? Is this yet ANOTHER thing that's gone wrong with me? At this point, I shouldn;t be surprised anymore, and yet I am… and I'm starting to dislike the fact that I'm still finding changes with my body. Just when did they stop? Would they ever stop?'

"Whew… that wasn't as hard as I expected." Unaware of his mental musings, Black Heart closed her eyes as she got enveloped in that light again, causing Alex to cover his eyes with his Pincer. By the time that it died down and he was able to lower his weapon (which had returned to normal mode by this point), Black Heart now stood in her human form with both feet planted firmly on the ground. Her eyes opened when she did so, and afterwards she looked towards Alex with a majorly smug grin spreading across her lips. "See? I told you we could pull through." she remarked, getting a roll of the eyes from the black haired teen, before she focused on the obvious elephant in the room, physically speaking. "So then, mind telling me what the heck THAT's... " she began, gesturing to the Pincer Alex had for an arm right now. She did NOT like the look of that thing, especially since she'd seen how it managed to destroy a portion of her city like it was nothing earlier with that Crater. "All about?"

At this, the teen held it in front of him in a horizontal position, taking a gulp as he tried to will the weapon away out of reflex. This would be the thing which he dreaded the most, since it seemed that Black Heart wanted answers much sooner than he had anticipated, so she'd figuratively caught him with his pants down. Worry that she would try to kill him filled his mind, so the first order of business before eh would have to answer her question would be to see if this arm could return to normal, cause by the GODDESS he hoped so. Having this thing was cool and all, but how would he be able to live a normal life if this thing was on him 24/7? He'd likely be treated as a Monster by the rest of Gamarket and then hunted for the rest of his days… not something he wanted for his life choices, thank you very much. Though, those worries soon vanished from his mind when, as if acting on his will, the whole arm became a mass of Tendrils once again, reverting back into a normal human limb by receding back into his shoulder to reveal his normal human arm. This wound up causing him to exhale in relief knowing that the mutation wasn't permanent and that he could likely activate it at any time, something he'd figured only as a hunch but a very strong hunch. He would have to look into how the Pincer worked in greater detail later though, since for now he had to assure Lastation's CPU that he wasn't a threat to her Nation.

"Well, honestly Lady Black Heart, I have absolutely ZERO clue as to what's been happening to me lately." Alex replied honestly, shuffling uncomfortably on his spot whilst rubbing the back of his neck. He could literally FEEL her gaze bearing down on him, so Alex promptly continued. "These things have only happened to me in the latter half of my journey to get here. My hometown's quite a distance away, you see, and i'd tried to keep clear of monsters as best as possible, but I accidentally stumbled on a place populated with them and was forced to run for my life." he flinched at this time, remembering the feeling of life leaving his body as well as seeing it flash before his eyes at that moment. Worse still, was that he had been assured by a few people whom he'd questioned on the safest route to Lastation that this one wouldn't have any monsters on it. It didn't sound like they were lying to him either, so either his instincts were getting rusty (which didn't seem too likely to him) or they weren't aware of that place either, something which worried him immensely.

Putting her hands on her hips, Black Heart gave Alex a deadpan stare, one which spoke volumes about what she felt about that. "I get that you were trying to get information first, but you REALLY should have done better. Asking people? Why not look at message boards, they usually have more reliable information about the current monster patterns, or heck you could have asked passing by merchants or adventurers. Furthermore, Monsters usually don't come out of their Dungeons or hidey holes especially not in groups like you described." Today may mark as an exception to that rule, but she didn't mention that in her small lecture. No, she was someone who firmly believed in putting in everything one had and some more into everything one did, the only way to truly earn success was through hard work and effort. Success without pain, blood, sweat and tears was hardly worth crap in Black Heart's eyes.

"Yeah well, this Town didn't exactly have any message boards in it, it's one of those towns whom excessively rely on the support of the adventurers and merchants that pass by, and that time had been a day of low activity too. So it's not like I had much of a choice." Alex responded in a defensive manner, trying to keep his manly pride intact. In truth, aside from his haste to get to Lastation, Alex had also considered those options, but like he'd mentioned the town had one of those 'slow days' due to a lack of merchants and adventurers passing through it. Therefore, Alex had tried to make do with what little he had. "Anyways, whilst I ran like my life was at stake if I didn't, which it was, I… did the cliche thing and tipped over a branch and bashed my head against a rock, knocking me out. I REALLY should have died right then since the Monsters had been on my ass, or at least have gotten a concussion if I survived the encounter, but by the time I woke up…" The teen raised a hand to his eye level, watching as Black and Yellow Tendrils rippled beneath his skin, almost in a mesmerizing manner as if they were sirens trying to lure him into his doom. "Well, not only was I surrounded by what I can only describe as total annihilation, I had not a SHRED of damage on my person, heck even my clothes were clean, and I wasn't sweating. No concussion either, which REALLY confused the heck out of me, but I didn't stick around in case more Monsters got drawn by whatever had happened. I skedaddled down the rest of the way to Lastation, and… well, this is where things got creepy."

"And like this stuff here WASN'T creepy?"

Alex mentally rolled his eyes at the sass he got from the blackette, though he guessed he could see where she was coming from. "Yeah, well to me this stuff takes the cake, because shortly after I arrived in Lastation, I found the whole silence thing unnerving, especially for a City home to people who believe in putting so much effort into their work. Hardly anything like Planeptune if you ask me…" He remarked, earning a prideful grin from Black Heart as she puffed out her chest in a similar emotion. Though, it then switched into the opposing concern and worry when Alex said his next piece, his own eyes glistening with similar emotions. "Yeah, so by the time I'd arrived at Lastation, I'd noticed many abnormal changes to myself, not only was I stronger, faster, but I could react quicker to surprise attacks amongst other physical ability empowerment, though the biggest change was when I nearly got skewered alive by a massive Scorpion shaped monster, I managed to repel it by chopping its arm off with a stop sign." At the end there, Alex sweat dropped at how strange that sounded, but then again this was Gamarket and such things usually occurred as if they were commonplace here. "Then, I get assaulted by this burning feeling which knocks me out, and when I regain consciousness the limb wasn't there anymore and, thinking that perhaps it vanished like any monster would in Gamarket, I didn't put too much thought into it. I then heard a female's scream, came over and well, you know the rest. Though I guess this Pincer thing I have..." he then idly shifted the arm into the Pincer from earlier, confirming his hunch from before until he returned his arm to normal. "Must have come from that thing, cause as you no doubt saw monsters whom I kill don't disappear like they usually would. Instead, they… well, my body absorbs them in one of the freakiest ways I've ever seen."

"This is… an interesting tale." She reluctantly admitted, and it wasn't like she could do much to disprove this story either since he HAD shown her some of the changes which he had gone through, so she found herself believing the rest of his story pretty easily. She did worry about that scorpion monster though, since she hadn't seen it herself yet Alex had shown her where he'd fought it, but still. She wondered what it could have been, where it had come from and why it was even here in the first place. 'Could it have something to do with THAT…?' she wondered briefly, before dismissing it for the time being since she wanted to move things along. "I'll look into things on my end, then. If there's an enemy hidden in the shadows, then i'll make it my job to search and eliminate it, so you can rest easy on that." She declared, and Alex smiled, knowing that the blackette had fully regained her drive by this point.

Just then, he decided to try and leave since he STILL had to find an apartment and a part time job, and it wasn't like he could stick close to Black Heart any more than this since she DID have a lot of work to get on with, he felt. However, before Alex could turn away, she began to talk some more which stopped his efforts flat. "In any case, you can call me Noire at this point, since it's not like we're strangers anymore." she suggested, remembering that Alex had been addressing her formally this whole time. It wasn't like she minded, but she preferred it if someone she knew more than just as an acquaintance would address her with more familiarity, plus he DID save her life, help her get her drive and HDD back, AS WELL as help her clear Lastation of monsters. In her eyes, that DEFINITELY counted for more than acquaintances.

"E-Eh? You sure about that?" Alex questioned, his eyes widening slightly as surprise plastered itself over his face at her statement. They hadn't even known one another for a day yet and Black Heart had insisted they be on a first name basis? Was that really okay? Not like he was complaining though since Alex himself wasn't too fond of formalities either, but still. Wasn't there some form of political red tape that needed to be dealt with? 'Judging by the look she's giving me, maybe not…' the teen thought, sweat dropping at the glare which Black He-well, Noire now, had given him at that moment. "Well, okay, sure then… Noire." Wow, was saying the name of a girl, let alone a CPU embarrassing and nerve wracking at the same time? For some reason, being so familiar with this Nation's leader felt like… well, it'd take some getting used to, that's for sure.

Seeing him call her by name caused Noire to grin at him, her eyes shining with joy as she puffed her chest out again. "There, now was that so hard? I swear, it not like we CPUs bite people, you know, we can have friends just like normal people…" she remarked, grumbling a bit whilst trailing off at the end there, causing Alex to smirk in an awkward manner. Just then, her eyes widened as she remembered something stated earlier in the situation. "Oh yeah, you said you were going to look for a place to stay and a Job, right? With you being from another place, your behaviour makes more sense…" she remarked, getting a nod from him. Looking Alex up and down for a small bit, the blackette took to thinking up something in her mind, what that was the teen didn't know though, but soon he got his answer when she nodded to herself in satisfaction. "With the dress code, I'd say its suitable, and those who dress darkly tend to be these unstoppable badasses anyways, so it'll work out…"

"Hm? What are you going on about, Lady Noire?"

Upon hearing Alex's question, Noire smirked back, placing a hand on her hip whilst pointing her free index finger at his torso. "Alex, I'd like you to become my secretary/bodyguard."

…

...

…

…

…

...H-HUH?!

Wait, did she say what he thought she did?! Did Noire, this Nation's leader, just SERIOUSLY ask him to be her literal right hand in work whilst protecting her?! Was that really what he just heard right now?! Alex's face mirrored the thoughts running circles through his mind as if they were caught within a chaotic whirlpool, which might not be too far off given the sheer ABSURDITY of the situation he'd found himself in. "HUH?! Wait, what?! LIke really, WHAT?!" The black haired male gasped, almost tripping over his own words which caused a small chuckle of amusement to escape his female companion. "N-Not funny, Lady Noire! Really, what the heck are you asking me here?!"

"It's simple, really. I'll hire you to work as my secretary and bodyguard, since I could REALLY use the help at this moment." Noire replied after hearing his question, to which… well, how could Alex refuse? In the end, this began the life of Alexander Evans, Secretary and Bodyguard to Noire, CPU of Lastation.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

And so, the rest of the day passed by, and if he were honest, then Alex would say that this entire thing had been one whole wild ride for him, in more ways than one.

First of all, Alex finally got the answer he was looking for to the whole deserted city situation… somewhat. He'd gotten it when he and Noire (wait, wasn't there supposed to be a Lady somewhere? Yeah, he'd be taking some time to get used to that one…) had went into one of the few sweet shops in the city, one which the CPU had mentioned about visiting herself one time for some RnR after she had conquered Gamarket in the past, and had found the owners, a man and a woman in their fifties… resting on the floor. Apparently, according to Noire something had happened (she wouldn't tell him what for some reason, but Alex got the sneaking suspicion that she had something to do with it, especially after what she had told him when she'd been down in the dumps), which had caused all her citizens to be knocked out. Judging from how deserted the streets had been both now as well as when he had arrived earlier the same day, it seemed this effect had spread to the residents of the entire city, something which honestly set off alarm bells inside Alex's head. From what she could tell, it seemed like a temporary effect since it wasn't long before the elderly couple woke up, and judging from a few quick questions on Noire's part it seemed that they didn't recall anything related to the monster attack. As far as they were concerned, they had just had a good night's sleep, and that was all there was to it… something which Noire felt necessary to keep that way so as to not cause needless panic and worry for these elderly. To him, Alex wondered why she had done that, since she could have just told them the truth and that they needn't worry about it, but in the end this WAS her Nation, so he didn't have a say in how she did things. He guessed it was true on what people back in his home had mentioned: that there would always be some people out there whose actions one can never truly understand, if at all.

Second, was the construction and repairs necessary for the city, and THIS one Alex would happily admit that he had the least amount of experience with. Hey, he had just come from a small village, so stuff like that would not be something he'd be used to, that stuff would be the specialty of the Village head and the governing council! Anywho, he still tried to learn what he could from the CPU he walked alongside, since if things progressed how he thought they would, then Alex bet that they would be working alongside each other from now on. Anyways, according to Noire, it would require at least 3 week's worth of work to get everything back in order like it had been before the Monster attack. She'd predicted this when she and Alex had walked together throughout the damaged area, estimating its level of desecration and what would be needed to repair it all. When he'd asked her how she had predicted this, Noire had simply responded with it being a 'skill which came from managing a nation, something one can only learn through experience' with that haughty, prideful i'm-better-at-this-than-you attitude, something which whilst annoying for a regular person, just made him want to chuckle in amusement for some reason. Perhaps it was something to do with the sad, depressed and defeated face she had on back before, something which he did NOT want to see on her no matter what, since it just felt… wrong, somehow. Like Noire shouldn't ever have to have such an expression, resulting in him feeling like he wanted to make sure that expression never returned onto her face again. He wasn't sure on that one though, or at least the dramatic nature of that previous statement, maybe the dramatic way he'd phrased it came from the intensity of meeting and talking to a girl, which wasn't something Alex tended to do often. Since, well, the only girls he'd talk to were his mother and younger sister, but yeah, he'll put himself back on topic before diverging too far from his previous thought process.

Thirdly, was all the talk about becoming Noire's Secretary and Bodyguard, and he had to say, Alex did NOT expect things to go down that path, nor would he be complaining about it. After all, originally he had anticipated himself coming to this city and finding some average job like in retail or something,one which he could make enough money to afford a small apartment or something similar, as well as so he could build up some experience and improve his resume so he could find a better job further down the line. Like, at least a year or 5, with his final goal being some kind of job in game design. Going to highschool, he'd done a few courses specialized towards game design, something which he'd took further when he'd gone into college, and during those times he'd even worked a few part time jobs to help his mother pay for tuition. He'd focused so much on education stuff that he had completely neglected most things normal teens did like go out drinking, chase girls etc, he just didn't see the point in that kind of garbage. If one wanted to succeed in life then they ought to at least put the effort into it, that was what he felt anyways and his mother certainly understood this mindset so she didn't scold him too harshly and did her best to support him. He loved his mom, he loved her more than anything with all she'd done for him, she'd been one of the major reasons why he had gone to find a job, so he could help her out financially too.

But yeah, that had mostly been thrown out of the window thanks to Noire offering him that secretary/bodyguard job.

He'd asked her about the specifics, and Noire had told him the following: According to her, the job entailed about him sharing her workload which would be much greater than normal thanks to this incident, not to mention she had to think of some events to host which would win the people's trust in her back, as she believed that this incident had hurt her reputation immensely… something she wasn't wrong in fearing what Alex had once read in newspapers about politicians being targeted for scandals and suffering as a result was any indication. The world of politics and leadership seemed way too large, threatening and dangerous if one asked him. Anyways, as her Secretary he would help her with her paperwork, be her confidant whenever she requested it, as well as helped her manage events that she hosted. A lot of this was pretty standard for a secretary, though Noire had also added in the bodyguard section, which Alex had at first wondered if it meant protecting her or something of the like, only for her to elaborate. The bodyguard would just be in name only, what he would really be doing would be helping her on Quests, fighting alongside her as her ally, as well as managing security details at big events or managing parties if she and him were to ever join one.

So yeah… that was what he would be doing in the future…

Whelp, he could definitely say this would be a promising choice to advance his career as well as follow his long-term goal of helping his mother out, so Alex didn't find too much negative stuff on that front.

Though, Alex still held some worries of his own, mostly upon the side of his body's changes and that mysterious Scorpion-like Monster…

Hopefully there would be a chance for him to find some answers to those queries.

* * *

In current times…

"So, this is Lastation's Basilicom…"

So remarked Alex, the black haired teen having stood with Lastation's CPU before the biggest building in the entire city, gulping whilst looking absolutely mesmerized by the sheer size of the place. Now, Alex had seen somewhat tall buildings before back in his village, but when he had arrived at Lastation he had been forced to rethink his definition of the word 'big' since this city had these 'skyscrapers' all over the place which looked like they could stomp on the tallest buildings back home like they were nothing but ants to them, something which… honestly intimidated him a little, although the teen didn't show it.

"Is it that surprising to see? It's nothing unusual, is it…?" Noire questioned when she looked at him and saw the face Alex had been making. As someone who grew up in cities like this and had thus seen this kind of sight all the time, Noire didn't really see why her new Secretary looked so amazed at it. It just looked like any old building, one which she admittingly spent most of her life now that she thought about it. Not to mention she never really gave it much thought since she had been focused largely on conquering Gamarket and uniying it under Lastation's Banner. She HAD been and still WAS a goal-oriented person by nature.

"Oh, well, maybe not to YOU it wouldn't, but coming from my hometown to a place like this.. It's kind of like taking a while to settle in." Alex replied, scratching the side of his jaw in an awkward manner whilst trying to find the right words to express the downright chaotic emotions he felt when facing this… this BEAST of a place. Heck, his whole body shuddered on the spot with a wave of Tendrils rippling down him from head to toe. "So, why are we here again?"

After most of the work they had done today, Noire had decided to return to the Basilicom, and Alex had followed her lead. This ended up with them travelling to the largest building in the centre of the city, one which Alex had seen quite a few times whilst looking around but had never really ventured towards due to the intimidation factor. It definitely had both the FEEL of the city's theme as well as the homely feel a CPU would like in her place of residence. Yeah, Alex had done some research on the CPUs before coming here, and one such topic which came up were their Basilicoms, said to be their place of living as well as work so they rarely left those places.

The biggest reason why these buildings were so large was to express their ability to rule over their Cities, similar to the mentality of 'I'm bigger than you so I'm stronger' but change the so i'm stronger part to something like 'so I can rule over you as I please'. According to his research, not only do the CPUs live there and do their work, but they also have lodgings for the majority of their staff members, so the Basilicom staff have both a place to stay as WELL as to work, with their expenses deducted from their salaries and what's left goes to the workers themselves. If one asked him, Alex would definitely admit that it's a pretty sweet deal, as well as explains why those who work at the Basilicom follow their CPU's behaviour and don't go out as much, instead wanting to stay as close to their Goddess as possible.

"With this whole monster incident, plus your condition and that strange monster you reported, its telling me that something MAJOR has went down, much worse than what I had initially thought." Boy was THAT an understatement, she thought mentally. Having seen the damage that Lastation had suffered thanks to this attack as well as discovered the state of her citizens, Noire definitely felt that something amiss had been going on, it would have been stupid of her not to think that way. Then there was Alex's condition which, she wasn't going to lie, it creeped her out a bit still, especially when she recalled how those things… took in the Monsters that he had killed in such brutal, gory fashions too. "As such, I need to find out what this incident truly is and how far reaching its effects are on the World as a Whole, not just my City." With this incident, Noire had a LOT of questions, questions which had to do with not just her City but the whole of Gamarket. To her, it felt like the entire board had just been flipped on its head, and if her hunch was correct then the effects of a certain decision-turned-mistake of hers may have done a whole lot more damage than she had initially seen. Therefore, Noire needed to get to the bottom of this, and had only decided to do so after getting a hold of the situation in Lastation's Capital City of SONY.

Hearing her response, Alex cupped his chin with his index finger and thumb, nodding his head in understanding whilst his free hand went under his elbow. Essentially, it was his thinking pose whenever he pondered on something. "Yeah, that does make some sense, definitely sounds like something a CPU would do…" he admitted, before lowering his arms back to his sides when a question popped into his mind. "So where do we start?" If Noire had intentions of launching an investigation, then wouldn't it be right to know where to start looking? Alex definitely didn't know any leads, but if he had access to those people…

A huff of pride erupted from the CPU as she spoke in her typical haughty demeanor, her crimson eyes alight with confidence as she spoke. "I know of the perfect source of info for this kind of thing, but I need you to find her and bring her to my Office on the top floor, but just in case I'll let the staff inside know of your presence so they'll give you directions if you get lost." she declared, whilst in her mind she hoped that her staff weren't as affected by her mistake as the rest of the City's citizens. If her hunch was correct, then they might have been worse off due to how strong their belief in her had been. Nevertheless, she wouldn't want her new Secretary to get lost so some help on her part would be necessary. Being a good boss was KEY to having good subordinates, after all. "She should be in the XXX room in one of the Basilicom's guest rooms, I'd put her there after some…" at this part, her face scrunched up in a mixture of anger, frustration and annoyance, like she was remembering some unfortunate event she would rather have stayed buried forever. "Annoyances ditched her. She should be resting at the moment, but I really need her help this time, so that'll have to be cut short."

"Got it. I'll make sure to get his done, Lady Noire. Count on it!" Alex proclaimed, a look of eagerness and excitement forming on his features, and why wouldn't he be like this This'd mark his first task as a Secretary, so he had to make a good impression if this would be one of the things he'd do in the future!

Obviously, it seemed that Noire approved of this determination herself as well, if the chuckle she gave at his demeanor was anything to say about it. "Hehehe, I like that enthusiasm! Now then, i'll meet you when you find Histoire, and like I said I'll be at my office. So see you then."

"Right!"

* * *

'Man, I wonder how newcomers to Basilicoms manage to navigate this place without getting lost, this place is MASSIVE…!'

It honestly amazed him how many times he had thought this in the last 110 minutes, Alex mused to himself after wandering past ne corridor, only to find himself at a crossroads, then turning right. Wandering through the Basilicom, Alex had once again got reminded of how big and expensive the place was, if the outside look had been a massive clue, then the interior felt like a colossal clue. The moment which Alex had entered the whole place, it had taken about 30 seconds for him to get himself lost through its many corridors, rooms etc. It didn't help that he had only found a few staff members to help him by asking them for directions to the guest rooms, and by few he meant lik 3 to four in the last 10 minutes he'd spent wandering through this place. Seemed like there were way too few in this place, but if what he'd gotten from Noire's few words on the issue was true, then perhaps a lot of them still remained under the weather. If that were to be the case, then he could understand why this place felt just as deserted as the rest of the city. Still, it didn't lessen the amazement in his chest, nor did it lessen the feeling of being as small as an ant in this large titan of a building. To him, it felt like manoeuvring through a labyrinth, making him wonder if it would be alright if he were to suggest o Noire to have like a map of the Basilicom made for civilians so they didn't get lost, although he guessed that this usually didn't happen since the Basilicom staff practically lived here, so they'd learned quickly how to navigate this place… honestly, that made him feel a little jealous inside.

Also, Alex had to wonder if the CPU had a thing against males, because the few staff members he had seen had been actually all women, and each of them looked to be in their 20's or 30's depending on the person he'd met. Not to mention the female uniform for the Basilicom staff members turned out to be similar to a formal business attire, what with the black overcoats with silver outlines, a white dress shirt with a black tie, black thigh length skirts with slits on the right or left sides to show black nylon stockings and darker black high heels. This… made it somewhat difficult for Alex to keep himself composed since well, if there was ONE thing which attracted him to women, it would be women in uniform. He didn't get it himself, but the sight of a woman always gave him the feeling that they were more in control over their lives, were practical and logical and could actually be competent. Anyways yeah, whilst he talked to them for directions, Alex couldn't help but notice how they gave him these… mixed expressions, like they too were trying to keep tir composure whilst also sneaking glances over his body. By the GODDESS he hoped that it wasn't what he thought it was, but for now he just intended to ignore that and focus on his task of finding this person…

Though, when he'd been given a photo of the person in question, Alex had to wonder if he was either on drugs or if the photographer had something wrong with them, cause he had NEVER seen someone like what had been shown to him on the Photograph before…. And this was considering the extensive types of monsters he had read about on the internet. If he were to describe the person in the picture given to him by Noire before she'd left so he knew what the person looked like, he would describe the person as… small. As in, very, VERY small, about the size of a human hand if he were to guess. Either that or enough to sit on the book she had been apparently riding on in the picture. The person took the form of a fair skinned girl with dull blue eyes and soft blonde hair. Her bangs curled in both directions, with two, longer curled pieces of hair that reached her chest area whilst the rest was worn up in pigtails held by a white, black, and blue head piece that covered her ears, and a pair of purple and gold ribbons. She wore a light purple dress, one which sported childish looking features such as white frills, a bib-like area, and a cyan bow at the neck. She wore on her legs some white stockings/panty-hose on with purple and white shoes, each with a pink orb on them. From her back, protruded a pair of bluish purple butterfly wings, wings which looked kind of pretty to the male if he were honest. 'If this person really exists as this photo describes… well, i've seen weirder things…' Alex mentally remarked.

With how things were going with all the silence around him currently, the teen found his mind wandering over to the more unexplained matters, matters like the changes to his body as he glanced down at his left hand, which rippled with Tendrils just as the entire arm did, almost as if they were feeling agitated at the enclosed space if the feeling of wanting to be outside and free flowing through him was any indication. To Alex, it almost felt like there was something… something else, something unnatural, living inside of him at this moment, such thoughts honestly seeming quite alarming and scary if not terrifying to think about. If there was really something else living inside of him, like a bug or a parasite using his body as a means of a host, then what does it want? What will happen to him in the near future? Would it happen to anyone else if he tried to dispel it from his system? Such thoughts filled Alex's mind every step he took along the corridor. The more he thought about it, the more unnerved and disturbed Alex became, so he decided not to think about it for now since he had a job to do.

Finally, Alex found the room which Noire had told him to go to in order to locate the person on the Photo... though it took him an extra 10 minutes, making it 20 minutes in total. She didn't give him a name or anything though, something which Alex wondered why on since if she had then asking for directions would have been a LOT easier. 'So, this is the room, huh…?' the teen thought, staring at a silver door with matching frames around it, each of the frames having multiple 'layers' which they sunk into. 'Whelp, the time's finally here… the moment of truth…' For a moment, Alex gulped as he wondered what kind of person this small girl really was, mentally hoping that she would be someone whom could be talked to easily, otherwise his job as a Secretary may end up being a lot harder than he had anticipated. So, with this in mind, Alex slowly raised his right hand, which showed signs of minute trembling to dictate how nervous he felt inside still, and planted a few knocks on the door. "Um, hello? Anyone in there?" he asked loudly yet trying not to sound like a bumbling idiot as well as hide the stutter which had threatened to escape him there. 'Huh, the sounds of my knocking seem to echo throughout the room…' the teen idly noticed, his body rippling with Tendrils which he felt glad nobody was around him to see.

"A-Ah, yes! I will be right there, just hold on a moment!" Now THAT caught him by surprise, the young sounding, almost babyish voice called out to answer his words from before, that is. Almost made him take a couple double takes had he not retained his composure, if he were honest. 'Whoa! That voice… don't tell me, was I wrong before? Was that photo actually legit in its accuracy? Huh, then this'll be a first I wasn't expecting one bit, nope not at all.' The black haired teen thought to himself whilst scratching his chin. A few seconds later, the door slowly, as in VERY slowly, curved backwards and to the side, showing that the cause had opened and pulled it back from her end of things. Only, one problem, the teen didn't see anyone from the other side when it was fully open, causing him to become even more wary than before. Just as he made to step inside, something small flew out from the side of the door and into view… a girl just as small as the picture had described, including the book she rode, apparel and appearance in general.

'Holy… shit…'

Yeah, that was all he could think of at the moment, such was his internal disbelief.

She had the look of confusion mixed with politeness on her face, the latter being the dominant expression whilst Alex managed to see the former behind her dull blue eyes. Currently, she breathed a bit heavily with a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead, likely due from something strenuous for her body like exercise… or opening a door… one WAY too large for her to do so. Great, now the dude felt like a bit of a dick for not offering to help her out. When she got her composure back, which took a few moments, the girl let out a small smile as she looked him over. "Oh, your a new face around here... How may I help you today? \\(^-*)v" she questioned with a matching smile on her face, one which Alex sort of compared to the smile of a mature and dependable parent or someone who had strong protective instincts. 'Also… was that an Emoticon she used just now?' the teen wondered when he saw said expression blink into and out of existence at the beginning of her sentence. 'I thought I'd seen it all… now, part of me's telling me: it's time for Alexander Evans to leave: he had seen everything.'

"Ah, am I right to assume you're… um...?" Alex began, before he tried to recall the girl's name. It wasn't mentioned to him by Noire of all people, so the little talk they had was out, but he DID recall just now (he kind of forgot about it thanks to the other issues he focused on instead) one or two of the Staff Members noticing whom he was talking about and referred to her by her given name. Now, what was it, something which began with an H… a book… glancing over at the book which the girl sat on, it didn't take long for the name to flash inside his mind as well as the conversation it had been mentioned within, causing his lush green eyes to go alight and sparkle with realization. "Ah, now I remember, you're supposed to be… Lady Histoire, am I right?" he questioned her, oping that he got the name right as otherwise he would look extremely stupid and pathetic at the moment.

Apparently, according to the conversation he had with the Staff Member, Histoire wasn't exactly a human being nor was she anything even CLOSE to the Goddesses, although if she were ever to go out and fight monsters then her power would put the Goddesses to shame. Nobody really knows what she was completely, not even the four Goddesses, though what they DID know was that she was officially classified as a living Tome Fairy, one who commanded extreme power over the elements and the history of the world, which she used to create some massively destructive abilities. If there was ANYONE who would be classified as OP in Gamindustri, it's not the Goddesses or the Monsters, but Histoire herself. Normally, she would be serving as the second in command within the Planeptune Basilicom, since the CPU there tended to be a lazy bum and not do anything productive, which made it fall onto her shoulders to keep the Nation from collapsing. Something which honestly, Alex had initially found hard to believe during their talk, though eventually he had decided that if he saw the CPU herself, perhaps he would be able to figure out the truth with his own experiences.

"That is correct." the young (?) Tome Fairy replied, evenly. She then tilted her head curiously as she in turn asked a question of her own. "Who, may I ask, are you?

(¯(ェ)¯)"

At this, Alex quickly responded since he didn't want to waste any more time. Though, he did wonder the billion dollar question: How could he summarize all the shit that was the shitstorm which had happened in the last few hours into a couple sentences? "Well… some stuff happened and its resulted in me being hired by Lady Noire as her Secretary." he replied, thinking that would be the safest bet until Noire could explain the whole story. He didn't want to say anything about his condition at the moment since there were more important things going on at the moment, something which he hoped Histoire would understand from the urgency he tried to project through his eyes.

A few seconds later, it turned out that thankfully Histoire understood the memo, if her following words were anything to go by. "I see. So, Noire hired a new secretary…" she muttered, closing her eyes and forming a thoughtful expression. It didn't seem like she would ask anything more about him, which he felt thankful for, although Alex got the impression from her that she held way more smarts and observation skills than her currently babyish form would allow one to believe. Was the whole thing about her being the reason why Planeptune stayed afloat true? "Then, I can only assume something must have gone wrong on her end, as otherwise I doubt she would have ever hired a Secretary in the first place. Am I wrong? (¯¯^¯¯)" she remarked, getting a nod of agreement from the black haired male whom had now gotten somewhat used to the Emoticons which she'd sprout now. He could see Noire as someone who liked to get everything done herself, so he doubted things any lesser in gravity and scale than this would make her ask for help.

"Well, you're not wrong, there." Alex admitted, shuffling on his feet with uncertainty. Well, at least she wasn't someone unpleasant to talk to, though he got the feeling that Histoire didn't socialise that he had a bit of a conversation with her, the teen began to see this girl as someone who… had a bit of a personality. She didn't seem to take nonsense and seemed to prefer getting straight to the point, though that wasn't to say she wasn't observant, if anything her observation skills seem to have the same accuracy as a Night Owl… he hoped she wouldn't notice the Tendrils crawling over his back since he had hid them there from her so she wouldn't ask questions. "Nevertheless, Noire wanted to confirm something with you, so would you be alright enough to follow me to her office, please?" he requested, lowering his head to the Tome Fairy. Hey, he may still be a secretary, but being respectful can go a long way, especially if this person was as important as people said she was.

"Not at all. Please lead the way, mister Secretary. \\(^一°)v"

* * *

Walking over to the Office where Noire resided, much to Alex's relief, turned out to be much easier than he would have thought, though that likely would be since he had a better guide this time. Either that, or there were more and more people waking up from… whatever had happened and as such he was able to ask for directions, some of them being much easier to understand than others to be sure, but he felt grateful nonetheless. Though, Alex did get more and more suspicious about Noire's taste in gender, since he STILL had yet to encounter a single male in this city, something he REALLY hoped didn't cause him any torment in the future like say some kind of feminist organisation.

Even so, he didn't have much of a chance to think about that stuff since Histoire turned out to be a rather polite conversation partner. The two of them talked about rather mundane topics like, what being a secretary entailed, on how Histoire tended to actually be the TRUE Leader of Planeptune due to the incompetence of the CPU in question (making him wonder what the CPU of Planeptune was like for things to be the way they were). Then there was one time when she had asked him what the status of the city was, and he had to tell her what had happened when he had arrived, Histoire explaining that for a moment she had blacked out, like some sort of switch in her mind got turned off against her mind's will. Of course, he left out the stuff he was involved in except for him helping Noire fight off the monsters, abridging it so that his abilities weren't questioned about. If Histoire found herself suspicious about his tale, she didn't show it, so Alex assumed she didn't know. Turned out he didn't have to worry about her social skills, since she seemed just fine when talking to strangers like him, not to mention that her smiles now seemed… much less formal and business like, but more familiar. Like, the polite well-practiced business smile she had on previously was only reserved for absolute strangers, but since she knew who he was and his connection to Noire as her Secretary, Histoire apparently saw fit to show him more genuine smiles. Alex would happily admit to liking that, truly he did, since it gave him a chance to be a little more relaxed without the possibility of her being someone who glared down the back of his neck 24/7.

Finally, the two found themselves at Noire's office, the blackette having immersed herself in her work with a pile of completed documents already on her side with more and more completed work being piled up. The room itself looked to be quite nice, following the scheme of black and silver with a large balcony, allowing her to pass through it via a stained glass door so she could get fresh air when necessary as well as look out into the rest of her beloved City. As amazing as the room looked, the teen still had to let her know of their presence since his greeting (which he'd made upon entry), had seemingly been either ignored or she was just too focused on her work, something which he found more likely to be frank. "Lady Noire, I present to you… Lady Histoire." he called out, gesturing for Histoire to float on in front of him since she apparently road on that book as a means of transportation.

That served to rouse her from her work, causing Noire to look up from the last document she'd signed and released a relieved smile, putting her pen down as well as standing up from her desk. The sound of wood sliding against the floor rung out when she pushed her chair back upon her ascension, her eyes focusing on the two new arrivals instead of acknowledging this sound. "Thanks." she stated, drawing out the gratitude a bit whilst stopping in front of her Desk. She crossed her arms under her bust, causing them to jiggle lightly although Alex made sure not to stare at them, lest he wanted to get smacked. If one knew what kind of household he'd grown up in, then they'd understand why, instead of calling him a wimpy bastard. "I was able to get some rest done as well as a bit of work, merely setting things up for repairs to get underway. So, Histoire… May I ask something strange?"

"Of course not." Histoire replied, shaking her head as she floated over to the blackette, ending up within a conversation's distance from her whilst Noire allowed her Secretary to come closer too, since he was just as involved with this as herself. The moment she finished there, Histoire's features shifted from polite kindness to grim concern, her eyes reflecting this whilst the atmosphere lost some of its warmth. "Judging by what happened to the city, it seems to be a sharicite-related inquiry. (¯¯^¯¯)."

As she heard this, Noire nodded to herself as if that answer had confirmed the hypothesis in her mind, being all the proof she needed at the same time. "My gut feeling was right then… the Sharicite IS at the root of this problem…" she commented, frowning with worry. Now that she had confirmed this with Histoire, it answered a LOT of her potential questions, ones she wanted to confirm with the Tome Fairy first but in the end she felt like they would be confirmed true. For one, it seemed that the reason why the People were unconscious during this monster attack, the reason why Monsters even attacked in the FIRST PLACE since a CPU's power was meant to shield the city from Monster attacks, even the whole thing with that unknown creature, all of it boiled down to the Sharicite being at the source of this issue. In that case, the pool of dread she had tried to ignore before REALLY reared its ugly mug up in the shadows of her mind at this point. The only thing which WASN'T likely connected to it was Alex's condition, although she'd inquire about that a bit later since the sharicite problem would take priority for the time being. She idly glanced over at Alex with this intent conveyed in her eyes, and judging from the nod she received, Noire realized he understood her intent.

What do you know, he was proving himself capable already.

Meanwhile the third party known as Alex rubbed the back of his head in confusion, feeling more and more lost the further along the conversation progressed. He felt like they had left him out of this situation and had started speaking like they were the only ones in the room, something which irritated him a little but he made sure to hide it. "Um… guys? If you don't mind, could you explain to me what this 'sharicite' thing is? I'm kind of new to this whole thing so I sadly don't know as much as you two…" yeah, wasn't that an understatement?

Fortunately, both of them soon realized their recently committed folly and adopted sheepish expressions, the one being to apologize first being Noire herself. "Oh sorry, I guess its not something a normal human would know about." she realized whilst sheepishly scratching her cheek as she mentally scolded herself for forgetting about her Secretary, and it was true, not everyone would be privy to something as important as this, otherwise incidents regarding trying to sabotage the Sharicite would occur. Guess she would need some adjusting to the new lifestyle that having a Secretary would have for her daily routine, then.

"I shall explain." Instead of her explaining it though, it was Histoire who floated forth to the challenge, something which Alex got the feeling that she was used to doing for some reason. "The Sharicite is the physical source of all CPUs' powers, to put it simply (¯(ェ)¯)ゞ. Both the CPUs, and by extension the Generals who are rulers of subordinate cities aligning with the CPUs, gather these Shares born from the people's faith and convert them into raw power (¯¯^¯¯). Each of the Four Nations: Lastation, Planeptune, Lowee and Leanbox, eac of them have their own Sharicite which is powered by the people of their Nation's belief and faith in their ability." Histoire explained in a way where a normal human would be able to understand it, and Alex did so.

He got what she was trying to tell him, and in his mind he found it similar to a power generator for a complex which was able to be recharged by an external energy source. The generator was the Sharicite, and the energy source turned out to be the faith of the people. Honestly, it just reminded him of a normal leader needing the faith of the people in order to make his reign an everlasting one, there were just some extra strings attached to make it more complex. "In that case…" slowly but surely, he began to realize the thought process Noire had been having this entire time, his brain working like it was on high to reach the same level of depth that the Godddess had, The more he did so, the more he began to realize the severity of the situation, as well as wondered how the heck this had happened in the first place. Noire DID mention that she had done something akin to a mistake, maybe that was it? "Then, if that's all true… then its easy to assume something went fubar with the Sharicite itself?" he questioned.

Histoire nodded gravely, her tone turning more so every second before she addressed the whole group. "That is the current assumption, yes. I suggest we take a second look at the Sharicite though, to get a proper grasp of the situation at hand. m9(°д°)." she suggested, wanting to see the problem atwork herself rather than just rely on what Noire and Alex were telling her. 'If what they say is the truth, then this could spell disaster for Gamarket as a whole… especially with THAT which these two are keeping a secret from me for some reason…' Histoire thought as she sneaked a glance over at Alex without him knowing, it WAS meant to be a discreet glance after all. 'After I came too, I had tried to look into my Tome for answers, and the first thing I noticed after about 3 minutes was that an unidentified Monster managed to get further inside the city than any of the other Monsters, not to mention it did so by burrowing beneath the city itself. According to what I read, young Alex here was the one who stopped it, but the way he did so still confuses me… What are you hiding, Alexander Evans? And, why is Noire helping you keep it a secret?'

"I agree, so let's go. That means you, too."

"Got it."

* * *

"Ahhhh… it finally begins… one of our own has awakened into his power…"

Deep within a dark space which any cliche villain would use to conceal their identities, a single figure lay dormant, having kept itself enclosed in a fatal a long time, longer than perhaps anyone in Gamarket could recall, this figure remained silent, unmoving almost like a motionless corpse absolutely dead to the world. However, at this moment something had happened and it had sensed this event. One of its own kind had been born, one whom likely remained blissfully unaware of what they have become: Something less than human, but also something more a the same time. As a result, its eyes slowly opened like the gates of hell would whenever there were an army of sinners ready to be dragged into the infernal depths to face endless damnation. Twin glowing crimson orbs pierced through the shadows like fiery blades, a dull crimson shine accompanying them and further enhancing the… inhuman feel to them.

"Ahhh… I see… so my little pet managed to lose an arm to this new addition to the family… interesting. It seems to be preparing for another attack, but is waiting for the right moment to intervene in this one's development… just as I had programmed its mind to. At least this means that the rest have… been adhering to my commands before my intentional slumber…" It spoke ominously, each time its breath leaving it released a cloud of crimson gas from its mouth, exposing the sight of some dagger-like sharp fangs, fangs which could fit on that of something out of a child's worst nightmares. As it spoke, that fanged mouth soon curled itself upwards, an insidious and downright maniacal grin spreading onto what could be seen of its face… which looked like it was made out of something wriggly like a mass of worms or insects.

"Well, it matters little in the grand game we play… for now, the other players shall be making their moves too, thanks to that old hag setting things in motion. I wonder who will end up on top… let's get this survival turf war (game) started, shall we?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Alright, if Alex kept being guided around by these ladies, he likely would end up fainting eventually, cause they kept pulling him along routes he hadn't even known EXISTED within this Basilicom! More routes were slowly opening up to him, routes which he hadn't gone down and made the whole layout that he had been forging within his brain become nothing but a tangled mess, it was just THAT complex. Fortunately, the teen wasn't alone this time when travelling through the Basilicom, with Noire and Histoire being his beacons to stick to for safe passage through this massive building, if he hadn't got them by his side he would have felt like he'd end up like those who wandered into that ever expansive labyrinth where that legendary half man half bull monster would find and eat his ass for breakfast, lunch, dinner or maybe all three at once. That's what the male felt inside although he made it a point to keep a calm, composed face on as he walked behind both Noire and Histoire whom seemed to be locked inside their own discussion, likely catching up on things which they may have missed… although, he got his actual answer when he listened in on their conversation and found it to be Histoire asking for details about the Monster attack, just like she had been with him. He guessed she intended to get as much information as possible for some reason, which had made him wonder: did she suffer under the effects of this Sharicite problem as well? That kind of worried him, since if someone like Histoire, whom had been said to hold more power than even the Goddesses whilst not relying on something like Share Energy (what the CPUs called the energy produced by the energy converted into power by the Sharicite), meant that this was an even bigger deal which he had initially realized.

Something kept telling him that the problems with his body were slowly but surely becoming minimal in comparison, right now.

Whilst following the two powerful and prominent Gamarket figures, Alex spotted more and more Basilicom Staff members up and about, going through their normal routines as best as they could with some carrying paperwork and others going to other places where they would be needed, he figured. When Alex did so (whilst choosing to ignore the lack of male workers this time) he had to notice something which he hadn't had earlier… how a lot of them seemed to be nursing some kind of headache, if the groans of irritation, the forced looks on their faces whenever they passed by, or the irritated glares sent his way as if he were the cause of their troubles were anything to go by. This obviously was noticed by the other two girls too, something which the trip glanced at one another with concerned expressions, their thoughts in unity about their theory on why this might have happened. Turned out the effects of whatever had happened to the Sharicite indeed had influenced the people, but worse than what they had initially figured, which begged the question of what exactly had happened to cause such an effect. Part of Alex wanted to ask Noire about that since he was still of the opinion that she had something to do with it, but instead he chose to keep quiet a little longer, since it seemed that they would eventually be getting those answers anyways.

It didn't take them long to reach their destination though, but by that point Alex had long since given up trying to form a mental map of this place for now. Instead, when they had finally stopped upon reaching where they needed to go, which apparently was an underground Sharicite Storage room only meant to be accessible by the CPU and similarly high ranking figures (he guessed he counted as her Secretary, something which Alex felt conflicted about if anyone asked him), Alex decided to look around to see where it was that they had ended up, The moment that he did so, Alex quickly got the impression of a miniature warehouse from the room they were in, due to how bare and dark the place looked. The room itself had a square-shaped frame to it, with the top part having a dome-like ceiling supported by many supports built into the walls. At the centre of the room looked to be a circular holding device, one looking like a mass of metal and cables which connected to the bottom of what looked to be a tall crystalline structure.

'Holy…' Alex, upon seeing the Crystal, beame gob smacked as he stared transfixed towards it, unable to peel his gaze away from the structure itself, so he tried to examine it instead. The Structure looked to be at least 8 feet tall, maybe 10 if he pushed it, with a dull white glow overtaking its form which got absorbed into the cables which connected to its base. The more he looked at it, the more he became awed just by its presence, it was almost as if he were staring at something so… so utterly profound, beyond his wildest imaginings that it just made him feel so small in comparison. 'So… this is a Sharicite, huh? I can… see why someone would want to covet something like this. The allure this thing has… its freaking insane, makes me realize why the CPU and those in the know keep as few aware of it as possible…' the teen couldn't help but think in awe and understanding, all the while he kept his ears open as Noire stood beside Histoire, who hummed as she eyed the crystalline Sharicite structure intently.

This lasted for a short moment only, for it seemed that it hadn't taken that long for Histoire to determine something within her mind. "Ah ha…. This is…(¯¯^¯¯)"

"Find something?"

"Yes…" Histoire replied, pausing for a moment to collect her thoughts whilst turning around, facing both Noire AND Alex. She then inhaled, exhaled, and finally allowed herself to open her mouth to explain what the situation she had realized was."Originally, this Sharicite had a major connection to the other cities themselves, which is how it usually gathered those City's shares. However, right now that is no longer the case." she mentioned, and before any of them could ask anything else or even say anything at this point, Histoire continued whilst raising a hand and lifting an index finger from the hand's closed fist position. " From what I can tell, some sort of EMP Share wave got released from it which acted like a fryer for the minds of the People in SONY, short circuiting them with this being a temporary effect depending on how strong their faith was. The greater the faith, the longer it will last. However, I am sure that this will be much less severe for the people of the other Cities who aren't at this wave's epicentre."

'I see… so that's why, huh? Well, I can kind of see that since everyone looked like an expired battery just now regaining a slight bit of spark, it also explains the headaches that the Staff Members sported, and why some of them were up faster than others… The Elderly couple, too. Now that I think on it, with the Share Wave pretty much rendering the CPU's power useless, the divine protection for the Cities likely would be gone too, which would explain why those Monsters were able to pour into the City and wreak havoc… It's honestly a relief or some kind of abusive plot armour that there were no innocent civilian casualties here...' Alex thought to himself, a grim frown forming on his lips whilst he digested the Tome Fairy's words. Hearing this explanation not only answered the question regarding the state of the people as well as the reason why the Monsters were able to attack the Capital, but it also gave rise to several questions in his mind, ones which he dreaded finding the answer to if he were to be truthful. Like, since this is the case with Lastation, then what if this wasn't an isolated incident? Like, if this was the case with Lastation, then what about the other Nations, Planeptune, Lowee and Leanbox? Were they having these difficulties too? Was there more than one kind of EMP Share wave like some sort of chain reaction? If any of his questions had a positive for an answer, then not only were things way worse than what they had initially expected, but Alex doubted that the other CPUs (even the Planeptune one from what Histoire had told him about her) would remain quiet. Even without their Shares, they likely would start mobilising entire armies and come knocking on Lastation's doorstep.

Noire herself also figured these things out, as well as realized the exact reason why she had lost her ability to transform into her HDD self back there. "So that's the reason why I lost my powers before, then…" she muttered to herself, but Histoire seemed to have heard her giving the knowing look and nod that she sent her way. To the blackette, it reminded her of something suddenly being cut off from its power source and abruptly deactivating… making her worry if there was going to be any problems with her HDD abilities since her example implied damage to the device's motherboard, meaning that something could have happened to her HDD powers which might not even show itself right now, but further down the line. A worrisome thought which she suppressed the need to gulp at, since she wanted to keep a cool, calm and professional image in front of her Secretary.

"Indeed." responded Histoire who also nodded in confirmation, understanding that to have been a reason for that particular side effect. "It is not to say that the connections to the other cities are gone, however it is better to say that they are EXTREMELY weak right now. I would speculate that your powers vanished around the time that the Share Wave got initially released, as such an attack would have likely destroyed you if your body hadn't sacrificed your power to save you." Histoire further explained.

"Um, not to be rude or anything but could I ask something?" Soon, Alex chipped into the conversation, unable to keep to himself anymore ESPECIALLY with what he just heard come out of Histoire's mouth. He continued whilst the two ladies turned their gazes to him, his eyes showing the amount of concern and confusion within him at the implications of what the Tome Fairy had said. "You say that the Share Wave was likely going to be dangerous to Noire? As in life threatening?" he questioned, gesturing to the Sharicite.

Nodding her head with a grave expression, Histoire glanced at the Sharicite again, but this time it looked more like she was looking at a ticking time bomb than something which sustained the strength of a Deity. "Indeed. Under normal circumstances, a Sharicite helps a CPU retain her powers, however if such a massive concentration of Shares like a Share Wave were to be released, then the CPU likely would have been destroyed by it. Remember what I said about the effects being greater for those who had stronger faith? Well, a literal deity POWERED by that faith would end up short circuiting and literally fading out of existence as it would not be able to handle such a massive surge of Shares. Its like what happens if a device's motherboard is destroyed by any kind of electrical discharge, the entire device would be considered dead to any mechanic the device is handed to."

Hearing this, Alex aimed a stunned and downright mortified look at the Sharicite and Histoire like he were a victim about to die in aa horror film, whilst Noire herself shuffled about awkwardly, not wanting to think about the LITERAL near-death experience she had gone through. In actuality, she barely remembered the feeling of death trying to grip her when she'd made that mistake, but it hadn't quite taken her and she was able to wake back up. It wasn't like she'd let something like that bring her down after all, but this DEFINITELY came close. Noire hadn't really put too much attention on it before due to the stuff that had happened, but the Tome Fairy's words brought it back and made her shiver with dread, especially with the thoughts of what could have happened if she were hit in her HDD Form where her Power was brought fully to the surface. "My theory on why Noire was able to survive likely was due to her being in her human form at the time, which provided a means for her to escape certain death by the Share Wave's hands… although it came at a cost of her powers as a CPU."

"Sheesh… Kind of reminds me of an EMP Burst, when you put it like that." Alex mumbled, shaking his head whilst placing a hand on his forehead, feeling like his legs were about to give out whilst his eyes shrunk to the size of pupils. He lowered his head to look at the ground below as he struggled to take this information in, as someone whom believed the CPUs to be literal deities who were nigh undefeatable in combat until now, though he couldn't really count himself as someone who had as strong a faith as a Basilicom worker, hearing that there was a possibility for a CPU to literally die by their own powers was something he found difficult to grasp the concept of. It gave the CPUs a sense of mortality that they likely didn't have before. "That's rough… whoever's responsible for this must have REALLY wanted to bring Noire down, then, cause that's the only reason I can think of why someone would even ATTEMPT anything as twisted as this." he mused barely above a whisper.

On that note, Noire flinched before gritting her teeth, remembering EXACTLY who that person had been. In her heart, she could still feel the sting of betrayal she had felt right as she'd woken up and realized that everything had gone to hell, and it stung all the worse because it had been her OWN fault that it had all happened in the first place. However, thinking back to the past brought her to a certain point in time during the battle, one which caused her to switch from angry to surprised in a few seconds. "Wait, I remember something! During the attack, I couldn't use my powers, but then…"

"Once your soon-to-be-secretary arrived on the scene, your powers returned to you, is that right…? \\(^一°)v"

"N-N-N-No! … Yes."

'Wow, tsundere alert, tsundere alert!' Alex thought, though he didn't dare say it out loud for fear of retribution, if he knew anything then it would be to never piss off a tsundere, cause they could be quite unpredictable when mad… even though it turned out usually as cute as hell.

Histoire meanwhile nodded in satisfaction when she'd given the blackette her deadpan stare when her denial had come out, forcing Noire to reluctantly admit her words to be the truth. "The Secretary's faith transformed into Shares, giving you some power Noire...Tee-hee. (*^_^*)`"

The two of them, Histoire and Alex, combined made it so that Noire groaned in frustration and embarrassment, so in order for the topic to stay on course (as well as diverge away from her feelings, to her hope), Noire quickly made to request an ideal solution to the problem. "I don't care about any of that!" she vehemently denied, although the red blush on her face told onlookers otherwise, until she cleared her throat and continued in a more calm and composed tone of voice. "Anyways, what can I do to fix this problem?"

"Well…"

BOOM!

"Whoa!"

"?!"

"GASP!"

"HERE COMES THE CAVALRY, OR WHATEVER!"

Just as Histoire made to respond to Noire's question, though to be frank, she wouldn;t have liked the answer she had to give anyways, a loud explosion happened above them. It came as such a surprise that the three of them, Alex Noire and Histoire each made their own startled reactions in that order. A part of the ceiling broke away and fell to the ground, several figures jumping down one after another with the first one exclaiming that line boisterously and without shame. The figures then hopped out of the smoke, landing before the trio to let their forms be known… and holy shit, Alex did NOT expect to see such people here.

'Th-these guys… holy shit, are they who I think they might be?!'

"Hmph!"

"Hah!"

A purplette, a brunette and a tall blonde woman… yeah, now that Alex had found out about Noire being the CPU of Lastation, the rumours about the identities of the other CPUs human forms felt like they had a lot more validity to them, Hence, Alex guessed who they were in his mind but chose to stay quiet. His mind, however, remained one step away from switching into battle mode and would go into that state if things went awry which he felt pretty sure there was a large chance they would. Since well, if this trio were who he thought they were, then it's likely that a fight will be imminent, in which case Noire would likely want him to perform some sneak attack or just to stay out of it since he had only that one battle with his new powers which had YET to be explored still.

"Wow! Our introduction scene this time went pretty much as planned!" the purplette remarked happily,turning to the other two whilst waving her arms beside her and tilting her upper body forwards slightly. Both of them in turn nodded their heads in unison, as if they had done this before only to some… negative effect, to which Noire and Histoire gave them the dead fish expression whilst Alex (after recovering from the shock of the sudden entrance) looked on in confusion, feeling like he was missing out on something important here. Judging by the looks on his colleagues faces though, it didn't seem like this welcome was anything sanctioned either, though he had to admit that seemed pretty obvious.

In the end, the one who broke the silence on their end turned out to be Noire herself, and she did NOT look too happy to see these three if the madly twitching brow and the multiple tick marks and bulging veins on her forehead were any indication of her current mood right now. "What's YOUR deal?! Ugh, actually how the HELL did YOU three get here?!" she bellowed, and to Alex's shock her head practically enlarged itself like a comical bobble head till it reached half the room's size, resulting in a gust of wind erupting when she yelled that blew the girls back like they were twigs. "You practically destroyed SEVERAL floors of my Basilicom with this stunt!"

"You see…"

The oldest looking of the bunch, the blonde woman, recovered first whilst the other two still looked a bit winded. Even he and Histoire had to cover their ears so that they could protect their hearing, something which they deeply treasured and would rather have their entire lives, thank you very much. Before the blonde woman could say anything however, the purplette suddenly jumped in, placing a hand over the woman's mouth to keep her quiet, making Alex narrow his eyes at her whilst the purplette spoke in a cheery, upbeat tone despite the glares aimed her way. "Don't even think a thought about it!" she responded with a chirp, before she took her hand away from the woman's mouth and pointed it towards the trio. "We're here to rescue Histy!"

"Rescue her?! But you guys are the ones who left her behind in the first place, or did you forget that?"

'...Yup, I'm DEFINITELY missing something here… might as well ask Noire when this stuff blows over later…' Alex thought to himself whilst watching what was going on. Though, he had to wonder, was this what a mob character felt like when watching these scenes play out? He felt like he had no place here anymore and was just left on the wayside for these protagonist level characters. He... wasn't so sure whether he'd like it or not.

"More importantly though…" So, the purplette was going to just skip over that whole thing, huh? Heh, smooth, he'll admit that one. Even so, the purplette placed her hands on her hips whilst puffing out her near non-existent chest (what he calls it like he sees it, plus its not like he has a favourable impression of her) before continuing on, which caused the tick marks on Noire's forehead to increase in number. Easy there Noire, let's not blow a gasket JUST yet. "You used the captive Histy to seal our CPU Powers! I can't forgive that, so… yeah!"

"ARE YOU EVEN HEARING THE WORDS COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH?!" Once again, Noire's super head technique came out as she furiously let loose the built-up rage she'd stored away from the combined incidents of the previous attack, her own mistake, the fact that her city was damaged by monsters, this purplette idiot barging in with the other two and now this accusation towards her… yeah, she had a right to be pissed.

More importantly, if he were to take a cue from the petite looking girl there, Alex mentally confirmed the suspicions he had about these three, not only about them being the other three CPUs but them also being affected by the Share Wave. Odds were, that the one in Lastation created a chain reaction somehow, so instead of one big wave sweeping through Gamarket it instead created multiple smaller ones, damaging the Sharicite in the other Nations and weakening the CPUs to the point where their powers were gone. Hopefully it would be like Noire and they would get their powers back, otherwise… well, Alex wouldn't know what they would do in this scenario.

Fortunately, before Alex could step in and not only announce his presence to the others who hadn't noticed him yet but also calm things down on both sides, the adult woman of the group seemed to realize the truth first as a look of realization crossed over her face. "Heavens."She exclaimed, putting the fingertips of her right hand over her mouth in a ladylike manner. "And here I had been under the assumption that you had stolen Histoire and were the cause of all this ruckus." She remarked, frowning whilst giving a look to Histoire. The reason why she realized this was that for a supposed 'captive' Histoire didn't look like she was under any restraints nor did she look like she was being held against her will, if anything it seemed like the exact opposite. Not long after her, did the petite brunette also come to that conclusion, as evident by the lowering of her killing intent instead of her expression becoming more relaxed. If anything she looked to remain on guard, but if she was who he thought she was then Alex could understand that one.

"W-Well... "

"Even if you aren't the source of this problem, you're still obliged to fill us other CPUs in." Chimed in the brunette whilst Noire looked torn between telling them that she wasn;t the cause, or feeling guilty. Since it wasn;t like Vert had been wrong in her assumptions, but she wasn't completely right either.

Good thing that Histoire chose this time to step in, both figuratively and literally. Floating in-between the girls, holding out her arms, Histoire quickly launched her own plea for conversation before confrontation. "Please, ladies. You all have yet to hear Noire's side of the story. Noire, would you please explain to them what has happened?"

"Yeah, sure, here's what happened…"

Apparently one of them didn;t get the memo of this being a TALK not a fight, since the petite purplette made a snorting sound, huffing afterwards whilst pumping her hands into fists in front of her chest. "Bah, soap on a rope, you guys! I'm all pumped up for making Noire answer for her crimes, and stuff…!" She exclaimed in satisfaction, although a quick glare from Histire managed to shut her up so the blackette could tell the story of what had happened to make things reach this level of severity.

After giving a grateful look to the Tome Fairy for her conduct, Noire began to explain. According to her, it had happened not long after she had defeated the three of them when they had made a last ditch effort of taking back the majority of the Shares, as Noire herself had them due to her massive conquering campaign she'd launched. Back then, she had been nigh unstoppable in her ambition, resulting in her becoming the top dog of the Continent. After their defeat which forced the girls to retreat, upon which Noire had to let Histoire stay in her Basilicom since the girls had left her behind (likely by accident, Alex theorized), Noire had explained how she had been approached by a woman named Eno, and apparently quickly becoming friends with her.

That part QUICKLY gave Alex a bad feeling, since he knew for a FACT one can't just make friends too easy, it just defied common sense. If it played out like he thought it would, then Alex could DEFINITELY see why Noire had an emo moment before when he'd first met her, though she kind of did it to herself somewhat too. Upon her mentioning about her learning about some ancient lore which supposedly would make it so that the CPUs wouldn't have to battle one another for Shares, Alex had to grit his teeth whilst gripping the sides of his forearms with his hands in order to keep calm. Feels so much like the girl let her pride, ego and the fact that she was on top of the world get to her head at the most crucial moment, if one asked him, not to mention that it seemed the other three had similar reactions… well, the brunette and blonde anyways, the purplette just seemed to be engrossed in the tale like a child being read a fairytale story.

Case in point…

"Oooh! And then, and then?!"

"Well, I'm not so sure, when I came to, I came back to the City to find it nearly deserted, I got attacked by a Monster, got helped out, and… Wait! I don't have to tell you anything else!" Turned out that Noire's tsundere attitude surfaced as she quickly tried to cover a certain part of the tale, the one where she had reached out for Alex's hand when she needed it the most, but it turned out to be too late from that point she had dug herself into her own rabbit hole by now,

This turned out to be ESPECIALLY true when the blonde woman put on an amused, older woman smile which only she could have pulled off, as she tilted her head in Noire's direction and placed her hand over her cheek. "Oh my, did Noire earnestly accept someone's outstretched hand for once?" she remarked with an amused, and teasing smile on her face, her eyes glancing over to where Alex stood impassively this whole time. At this point, the rest of them soon noticed him as well, officially acknowledging Alex's presence. Heck, he wasn't sure about it, but he SWORE that he saw Vert checking him out by looking him up and down for a brief second. 'Might want to keep an eye on her in case she tries anything…' The black haired teen thought warily, cause for that one instance he couldn';t help but feel like a sack of meat, which caused a wave of uneasiness to fall over him.

Soon, the brunette analyzed him the moment her gaze met his, and for much longer than the blonde did. For a moment, he feared she would look at him the same way, bhut to his relief her gaze only conveyed a sense of curiosity, something which he could understand much easier. It would be much easier to comprehend that someone new had entered a scene and one would want to know more about them, and unlike the blonde he didn't get creeped out by her stare. Turning her gaze away from him after he walked up to Noire's side, the brunette gazed over at Noire with a knowing look glimmering in her dark blue orbs. "This is a change of pace. So, you two are an item now. I see." she remarked, nodding her head as if she had figured out a great mystery.

'Okay, WHAT the hell?!' The black haired teen mentally exclaimed, nearly doing a double take from what the brunette had just stated. Instead, he had a slightly surprised expression on his face as he looked at her like a confused rabbit. Now THAT curveball threw him for a loop, and then some, when the heck did that come about? Where did it come from, where was the context behind that question? For a moment, everything he had thought about her vanished into the wind, replaced by this sense of anxiety inside his chest as images flowed though his mind, images of him and Noire… 'Hey, we hadn't even known each other enough for something like that, girl! Might not want to make certain assumptions without some hard evidence first!'

He wasn't the only one who got side-lined by that one, either.

"N-N-N-NO! He's just my lackey, helping me with work! Rrrrgh… Tell them!"

"Yeah, what she said. Geez, you guys seem to like making assumptions out of the blue, don't you?"

Even with their replies though, with Noire's fuelled by anger and embarrassment whilst Alex's remained filled with exasperation and disbelief, it wasn't enough for the three ladies to stop their assault. "Just following orders, eh soldier?" the purplette remarked, quickly taking the chance to play pile on and join the others in the teasing of the two, or rather more Noire than Alex since she hardly knew the guy. But still, nobody gets away from the power of the trolling Nep! "I bet your sniper scope is all aimed up to hit a score on her hotness, huh?" she added on with a cheshire cat grin, stepping up to the two with her hands tied behind her back as she leaned forwards into their personal space.

'Ok, I can DEFINITELY see why Noire would find this girl as annoying as she does…' Alex thought with a madly twitching brow. Even now, the blackette looked like she was about to scream and pull her hair out in frustration with the constant teasing being thrown her way. 'In that case, lets get some payback, shall we?' he thought, looking back to the purplette, innocently tilting his head to the side. "Um, and why are you so interested in her love life, mrs? I mean, is it really any of your business, or is it that you want to expresssome latent homosexual desires towards her or something?"

"WH-WH-WHA?!"

"NEPU?!"

His comment got met with mixed reactions, with surprised looks coming from the two girls whilst the purplette and Noire gaped at him in disbelief. Heck the former of the two stumbled backwards as if she had been slapped, completely caught off guard by his response to her offensive However, fort Alex wasn't done there for he had a counterattack ready for the army of the purplette. "This overly-dramatic interest in someone else's personal matters implies that you are indeed on the market and, as you so eloquently put it, want to 'put your sniper scope on her hotness' which attempts to display some kind of dominance to potential love rivals. This could indicate that you either are extremely possessive on a level which would make even yandere type people go green with envy or you cannot control your own lust and as such direct it at anything other than yourself. Hmm… interesting, very interesting…" Fort Alex launched dozens of strikes against the purple army and it rendered them immobile, super effective if the absolutely flabbergasted expression on the purplette's cherry red face was anything to go by.

The fact that both parties looked torn between embarrassed, horrified to downright mortified, well... lets just say it proved amusing. Hey, he wasn't trying to piss off tsundere Noire, so its all good...

He'll probably have to apologise to her after this though.

Now, time for the final blow which would wipe the army out for good. "Now that I think about it, the behaviour you displayed presents an interesting case study, you acting the way you did with patient Noire here implies that you may be a hold some masochistic tendency, as it is obvious that Noire would eventually lash out at you in the form of a physical beat down but you keep on going anyway. Tell me, do you get off on that stuff?"

"Hmmm, my what an interesting conversation." A surprise attack came from the rear. All of a sudden, the blonde woman joined in as she walked over, smiling like a gremlin when its found the prey it wants to mess with. Normally, Alex would have shuddered at that gaze since it would have reminded him of how she looked at him before, but right now he'd focused too much on trolling the purplette to notice or care. "Now that I think about it, its indeed quite peculiar, though I wouldn't use the… language which this handsome young man used." she said, grinning at the purplette whilst adding on her own take on the situation. "From what I recall, you may tease people you like, but you DO seem to tease Noire an awful lot more than others, so tell me, is that a sign? Are you a little jelly that the lover's not paying you enough attention?" she asked teasingly, letting out an excited giggle.

The brunette remained at the back of the conversation, yet still managed to take it all in, all the while smirking in amusement just like the rest of them as she launched her own surprise attack on the purplette army. "This is an interesting development, there's been some fan rumours spreading around the Planeptune blogs. Maybe this might encit some more yuri fanfics for you, Neptune, though considering your track record I doubt your reputation can get any lower."

POW!

Purplette Army defeated!

"C-C'mon guys, why gang up on little ol' nep?!" Neptune, now looking like she would go nuclear with all the teasing getting thrown her way, accompanied by the steam coming out of her ears with matching steam sounds. First she got trolled by the new guy, and now her friends went and piled on with the trolling themselves! What the heck, that was so NOT cool, not cool at all! Then, she noticed the glints in their eyes and an angry pout formed on her red face. "Mou…! You guys were just WAITING to pay me back for that one time, weren't you?"

"Oh my, whatever do you mean?"

"Hmph."

"Grrr!"

Sadly, the torment of the purplette couldn't continue any longer (though Noire discreetly sent Alex a thumbs up and a quick look of gratitude to earn an equally discreet yet slightly surprised nod back), since Histoire quickly went in and played the straight person of the group. "Please, please, let's get back on topic! We still have much to discuss here!" she begged, her eyes brimming with frustration as her form radiated a stern, parental aura which quickly diffused the various people involved. To Alex, it reminded him of how his mother sometimes got whenever he and his sister got up to mischief when they were toddlers, they'd end up being put on a naughty step for hours on end to reflect on their deeds before being allowed to leave.

Needless to say, it also worked on the rest of them too,

"Fiiine…" The Purplette moaned, but reluctantly agreed since she remembered just how Histoire could get when angry, more times than she could count. She definitely had a set of lungs on her, that was all she'd mention on the matter. However, she aimed a glare towards Alex's direction, one which pretty much screamed 'you may have won the battle, but the war's just begun buddy!' to him, in which the teen simply stared back as if to say 'bring it, bitch'. In the end though, something clicked within her brain, making her go all sheepish and forget this incident for the time being. "Ooops, I forgot to introduce my fine self! I'm the CPU Guardian of Planeptune, Purple Heart! But hey, call me Neptune!"

He wouldn't say what he wanted to in his mind right now since that likely would cause an incident, so Alex simply responded with a standard pleased to meet you, as well as a handshake (which to him seemed to be a little tighter than a normal handshake though he showed no discomfort on it to the purplette's dimay). Afterwards, the two of them separated, allowing the other two unidentified women to introduce themselves. "I'm the Guardian CPU of Lowee, White Heart. Just Blanc is fine." so said the brunette as she offered her own hand, to which Alex gleefully responded with a much more upright smile and greeting to match, shaking her hand with greater enthusiasm much to Neptune's ire.

"I guess that leaves myself." Soon, it was only the blonde woman left, though going by the trend that was happening her as well as his own previous deductions, he kind of had her identity pegged already. Still, Alex remained silent as he looked at her, since she had been a decent person from the beginning he felt like he could get on with her quite well. He didn;t know why himself, but Neptune just… rubbed him the wrong way, probably due to the childish assumptions she'd made along with her demeanor in general. She, to him, seemed like someone who…. Took some getting used to, yeah he'll say that. "Then here we go, I am the Guardian CPU of Leanbox, Green Heart. Please call me Vert."

Nodding in response to this, Alex gave his own reply. "Name's Alexander Evans, Black Heart's new Secretary, though Alex is just fine." he introduced himself with a formal nod of his head, getting another giggle from the newly named Vert. Yup, he was was right, aside from Noire herself he would DEFINITELY be able to get along with her and Blanc. Just then, a thought struck him as he adopted a rather sheepish expression. "Though i'll be honest and say this wasn't the way I expected being able to meet the four CPUs, some of the most important people in Gamindustri." he remarked, recalling the near disastrous confrontation which had taken place earlier. 'Wait, if the four of them fought here, and these three didn't have their HDD… huh, that actually doesn't sound as dangerous as I thought… for us at least.' he added mentally after a few seconds.

"Yeah! Boy howdy, you really won the lottery to see a CPU Summit like this on your first day!" Neptune responded, crossing her arms under her chest.

Yet on the other hand. Alex… wasn't so sure about that, especially since for a moment back there, the teen remembered how he had almost gotten a damn heart attack at the thought of them duking it out without warning. Fortunately for him, he didn;t have to dignify tat response with one of his own since Histoire cut into the conversation again. Seriously, she should really get an award for how many times she's had to play the straight role in this. "Ahem! Shall we discuss the matter at hand? In short something happened to your Sharicite, and by extension the rest too, due to this Eno woman?"

Noire nodded at this, her expression souring at the bitter memory of it all. "Y-Yeah, that much i'm sure of. I can't believe I let my ego get the better of me, thanks to her…" she remarked, grumbling as she crossed her arms under her bust and looked to the ground beside her, just a moment away from smashing her teeth with how hard she clenched them.

"Worry not." Histoire stated in a consoling manner, not wanting Noire to think this had to be her fault for now, "The problem now is that the CPUs are weak, without Shares." Yeah, that was true, each of them understood this fact even Alex. However, the next part wasn't understood by him so easily yet. "Even your Generals may outclass you at the moment."

This made the teen speak up, like a student in a classroom. "Hold up..." he began, holding up a hand which drew Histoire's gaze. "Quick question, cause I'm confused: I thought the CPUs and generals were all on the same page when it came to Shares and each other. Didn't you say that they help the regulating Shares stuff for the world?" At the end of his question, Alex furrowed his brows as he tried to think of a possible answer to his own question.

However, Histoire already had an answer ready for him. "Ordinarily yes, however that is the more official statement... the CPUs and their Generals, on the outside they get along fine, but that is what they want the public to think. Every General is unique in their methods, personalities and quirks, so its not hard to understand that there will be some with their own ambitions they will want to fulfil, not to mention some of them won't like being under a weakened leader. They will see it as an opportunity to take control over their portions of Gamarket with their Cities being at the centre."

Blanc then chimed in herself, her tone just as grave as what the Tome Fairy's became. "Histoire's right, the commonality between us CPUs and the Generals, is that they too can use Share Energy like we can. However, there are differences, one being that we rely on it as a means to stay in existence, we were FORMED by Shares in the form of people's faith after all. The Generals however, don't have that con. Not only that, but they can use it in lesser quantities to us CPUs and don't exactly have their own transformation, only an all-stat buffing Skill called an 'Awakening' which amplifies their abilities to a point where they can be considered in a pseudo HDD state."

"Huh... I see..." So in the end, it was just human nature which they would need to contend with, along with a side of them being able to be juiced up by Shares just like the CPUs, huh? Alex's face contorted into a perplexed expression as he thought about all this, his eyes sharpening like blades. Well, wasn't that just peachy? Part of him wondered why Generals were even a thing then, if these things could have happened if the tables of power balancing were turned on their heads like this. "Then, in that case, I can see what Histoire's saying, what with the CPUs being on the lower end of the spectrum. Let me guess, this can't go on for too long, right?"

Histoire nodded her head at the deduction which the Secretary had made, placing her hands on her lap whilst worryingly clenching them into fists. "Indeed. If this keps up, then the Balance of Shares may end up toppling, and the world will completely cease to exist. (¯¯^¯¯)"

"And it'll be all my fault..."

"Don't be so doomy-gloomy, Noire." All of a sudden when Neptune heard the words coming out of the mouth of Lastation's CPU, she quickly went to lightly scold her about it before going on to try and... comfort her, in her own Neptunish kind of way, of course. "Nobody's saved the world with the power of brooding, y'know."

'Um, I can name a FEW exceptions to that rule...'

Whilst thinking that, Alex remained silent since he'd figured that they were trying to cheer the blackette tsundere up. Shame that it wasn't working, though that could also be expected in some sense as Noire looked at them with frustrated and regretful tears in her eyes. "I know, but still..."

"She actually has a point, Noire. You need to keep it together."

Blanc then jumped into the scene with her own comments, eyeing her intently whilst she delivered the truth as blunt as a hammer, earning a... rather timid and meek response of 'okay' from the blackette. Holy shit, he did NOT expect that from her.

As such, Alex felt the need to jump in himself just like he had when she had hat emo moment of hers. "She's right you know, remember what I said earlier? You REALLY going to let some random stranger beat you down without pushing back? That doesn't seem like the Noire Gamarket has known this whole time."

"S-Secretary..."

"Well said, young man." Vert complimented proudly, clapping her hands together in front of her face, before she lowered them and tilted her head to the side. She then proceeded to speak in a tone befitting of a... well, a big sister was all Alex could describe it as. "Like he said, with your mopey expression, you will end up shifting our group aesthetic quite a bit."

Noire eyed the three whom had spoken to her, offering their own forms of encouragement in their own ways. Blanc's as straight and direct as ever, although Noire had known her to be like that with anything she came across so she didn't expect anything else. Vert, whilst a major pain in the ass in terms of competition, definitely had the big sister form down pat, especially in the encouraging department. Not to mention that, aside from being a rival CPU, Noire honestly had no beef with her in comparison to the other two, so she could be considered one of the rivals she would extend quite the cordial relationship towards.

Finally, there was the Secretary, whom she had only met today and yet he had understood just how to motivate her to get back onto her feet without care for how she might see him later. His words reminded her of what he had told her back then, when she had needed help the most, allowing those words to ring in her mind once again.

That, combined with the help of Blanc and Vert, resulted in Noire letting out a small, yet soft and tender smile, to break out onto her face as she wiped her eyes of any tears. "Thanks, you three..." she said afterwards, restoring her original determined and ambitious look for them, earning a grin/smile from the rest.

"What?! Aw, c'mon, you guys! I said supportive stuff two!" … Then the mood got ruined when a certain purplette tried to re-insert herself into the conversation like a whiny brat unable to get her way.

"Your words are as empty as your head."

"Would it be terrible of me to completely agree with that?"

"Considering its this troll of a person, and this is coming from someone whose just met her... nope."

BANG-BANG-BANG! Triple shots from three different guns got let loose onto the target that is Neptune, who in response clutched her chest where her heart would be and acted as if she actually HAD been shot. "Oof! You've hit my weakness...! A critical strike to my vulnerable heart!".

… Yeah, he wanted to call bullshit there, but Alex refrained.

In the end though, Noire decided to play the straight man of the group this time, an angry and frustrated groan escaping her lips. "Moving on. Histoire, what can we do to get our Sharicite's powers back?" she questioned the Tome Fairy, officially putting an end to the whole shenanigan taking place before her at the same time.

"About that I think that Gamarket will first need to be unified before that can possibly happen. (*^_^*)"

Unifying Gamarket, huh?

"Wait a moment, that changes nothing. We've been working towards that on our own terms this while time." Vert interjected in confusion, not understanding what the Tome Fairy meant.

"I did it once, so I can do it-"

"-_-"

"-_-"

"-_-"

"G-Gee, hehe, the weather sure is one of the best things about Gamarket, h-huh? Haha..."

Upon hearing Histoire's comments and Vert's reaction, Noire felt the need to interject, as it was true that she had indeed united the majority of Gamarket under Lastation's banner. However, upon saying what she did, Noire got some dirty looks aimed her way by the three CPUs, their combined killing intent quickly making her change her tune much to Alex's confusion as he stood there. Maybe he should look into what his 'boss' had been like before he had arrived, cause he sensed that there was a lot of this that he had been missing still.

Ignoring the situation before her, Histoire continued to explain. "While similar, the concept is unique for this situation. The shares were high in your capital cities, but... that is no longer the case. Your respective Generals may not listen to you as you are now, meaning that you will likely be facing them at a bit of a disadvantage." she explained, and the more she did so, the more apparent that it became that things would indeed be much more troublesome than originally expected, at least in their eyes.

However, Vert instead took it all in and comprehended the situation in her mind, resulting in her giving an understanding nod. "I see. You have a valid point, especially since we no longer have access to our HDD forms at the moment." she remarked...

With Blanc soon adding a follow-up comment. "Histoire's comments about our Generals being stronger than us, is now highly likely."

"So I guess that would mean that the four of them..." Alex spoke up, gesturing to the four CPUs with his hand before putting his weight on one foot to lean on it. "... need to work together for once instead of against one another? So they can get things back to normal?" he questioned, getting a nod from Histoire. This caused him to frown, as he tried to think back to when something like this had happened before... only to come up negative. After all, there may have been times when one or two of them had allied against the others, three being the possible limit, but never all four at once. Plus, with how Neptune and each of them were, he wondered how long that would last. "Pretty tall order there, Lady Histoire, its not going to be an easy ride." He wouldn't mention that it wouldn't solve the other problem of that new monster, but he figured that things would happen when they're meant to so he'll stay quiet on that for the time being.

In contrast to him, Neptune however seemed to ponder it intently, with how she stood with her arms crossed and a tight expression on her face, her eyes closed so her expression looked... kind of cute, although the moment he thought that Alex blasted it out of existence. "So, in other words, its a case of help me and i'll help you and you and you. That about sum it up?" she questioned.

"Precisely. The CPUs shall work together to return Gamarket to its former glory. #SIGH# What a wonderful concept! \\(*一°)v"

"I wouldn't mind doing that." After a moment of contemplative silence, Blanc became the first to voice her approval of the idea, nodding her head whilst raising a hand as if to go 'ah, this should be known to the rest'. "Fighting among ourselves will be a waste of energy at the moment."

It didn't take long for the others to follow suit, either, as if Blanc had started a domino effect with them. "True. What is the point if our world is destroyed before we can unite it under our Nation's banner?"

"I can dig it too, Histy." Neptune commented I agreement, but the way she said it as if trying to gather some sort of courage made Alex assume that she had something else to say on her mind too, Good thing that he was soon proven right then as she soon pressed onwards to another issue. "But, uh, even if we work together, its kind of a big deal to pick a leader right?"

'For once, I actually agree with the Planeptune CPU, these four are all Leaders of their own Nations, so it would stand to reason that they would be used to the power of control over the masses. They wouldn't let another command them so easily without being thoroughly proven of that leader's ability. That leader would also have to be truly exceptional to be able to keep this lot in check. What was that phrase from that one movie which could sum this up well... oh yeah, one leader to rule them all'... yes its an altered reference, so sue me.' Alex thought, nodding his head in approval of Neptune's words before losing himself in the thoughts of who the leader could be. Well, honestly he had an idea of who, but to be frank he'd be a bit biased considering his position and the fact that he didn't know the others all that well either.

Needless to say, Neptune's words provided a spark of realization to the other three CPUS, as if to say 'oh, right!' or something along those lines with Blanc again, being the first to comment as she held a fist up in front of her, "Oh. Right. Having four captains all trying to navigate one boat could only end in catastrophe." she remarked, making a comparison between their situation and a... really dark one if one asked the rest of them.

Nonetheless she did have a point, one which Vert decided to follow up on as she put her hands together like some criminal mastermind would do when their plans were going along as they had expected. "Indeed. Then, shall we determine who our leader ought to be?" She suggested, although afterwards Vert gave a frown in a certain black haired CPU's direction. "Noire is non-applicable, of course."

"Hey! Don't just toss me out of the mix, Vert!"

"Well, but you..."

"Yeah."

"Right. Right? Riiiight…"

"What. Are. You. Scheming?!"

All of a sudden, to Alex's surprise the atmosphere became tense the moment those words left Vert's mouth, with the other two CPUs aside from Noire agreeing with her as they each gave judgemental stares towards the blackette. In return, Noire started to get increasingly ticked off, prompting lightning sparks to fly between their eyes. 'Oh shit, is this what will happen to reignite the console wars?! mayday, mayday, mayday, code red! Code freaking red!' The sole male teen exclaimed in his mind as he frantically tried to come up with an alternative solution which DIDN'T involve bloodshed.

Well... he DID have one means, and he would have done so as an advocate of gender equality, however that would likely spark a conflict for different reasons.

Even so, one person broke the tension with her voice, lets have one guess who that was, shall we? "This is all your fault, brosophine! Isn't it considered POLITE for you to bow out and let us real chicken dinners win?"

And like an ignited powder keg, things blew up.

"Then why don't YOU bow out? Not like your Shares have changed at all after this whole incident...!"

'DAMN, girl went savage! Get wrecked Neptune!' Yeah, that pretty much summarized his reaction to the words Noire had countered Neptune with. Said CPU gaped like she had just been slapped... slapped with a 'reality check' glove to the face to be more exact.

"Whoa! That's gotta be below the belt! You're making me mad, Noire!"

"Hmph, blah-blah-blah..."

'DAAAAAAAAYUUUUUUUUUM! Savagery level's over 9000!'

"Grrr!"

Ignoring Neptune's growl when Noire mocked her twice in a row without so much as one single rigid movement, the blackette looking away but just enough so the purplette could still make out the smug smirk on her face, Blanc decided to offer an alternative solution of her own with one of the smuggest grins one could ever see on a woman. "How about we al give ourselves a fair shot and fight it out?"

"Huh? Sure, I guess that's fine."

With Noire's agreement to the solution, Vert beamed happily as she hopped up and down on the spot, ironically making her boobs bounce audibly as well much tot he ire of a certain brunette who wanted to smash those two melons into paste. Afterwards she stopped and grinned eagerly with her hands still in that evil mastermind position. "Excellent. Then shall we three fight against Noire, and the role of leader shall go to whomever is left standing?"

"Ummm… 3 on 1 against Lady Noire? Those odds kinda…"

Upon hearing her Secretary's concerned words, Noire glanced over in his direction, noticing the minute twitching of his right arm and IMMEDIATELY realizing the thoughts running trough his mind. The minute signs of Tendrils crawling beneath his arm's flesh which couldn't be visible unless one was actively looking for them also proved to be a big hint. "Hey come on, if I end up becoming the leader after a fight like that? It'd be WELL worth it. No need to worry yourself, Secretary." she remarked, then flipped one of her ponytails aside and placed the same hand on her hip, lifting her head up and holding it in a haughty manner. One could LITERALLY call her an 'oujo sama' right about now with the sensations radiating from her. just need the 'ohohohoho!' now... "Let your boss show you how its done."

… Well, after hearing that, how else could Alex refuse? The teen mentally calmed himself down after begrudgingly accepting her argument,, letting his arm's transformation revert since it had been one step away from morphing into its Pincer form. Now that he thought about it, it was probably a good thing that he didn't step in and get involved like he had been initially intending to so he could help his boss as a decent Secretary would. For one, they were still keeping his condition a secret for the time being till they knew what it was that they were dealing with exactly, and it wasn't like Noire completely trusted other CPUs with this information either. Heck, she'd been playing it pretty close to the belt this whole time, not even telling Histoire about it so if he had unleashed his power here then everything she'd worked for would have gone up in smoke. Furthermore, there was no guarantee that he would be able to take down even ONE CPU with his current abilities let alone multiple. So yeah, in the end it would have bee best to keep himself out of this for the time being.

And so, Alex took a step back whilst nodding to show that he accepted her word, causing Noire to smile as she grinned eagerly towards the other three whom were too caught up in the present intent to battle to notice her quick interaction with him.

"Me no likey! Me angry Nep-Nep! Nep-Nep SMASH! Vert, Blanc? READY?!"

"Aren't I always?"

"Prey to us for mercy."

"Sorry, but its time you all finally understand whose in CHARGE around here!"

With that said, Noire grinned as she summoned her sword, the other thee summoning a Katana (Neptune), A hammer (Blanc) and Spear (Vert) respectively... before they each engaged each other to start off the most climactic battle yet!

Until next time, folks!


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

If there was ANYTHING which can be called a one sided slaughter, then what Alex saw before him would be called such as Noire, or rather Black Heart in CPU/HDD Form, literally went to town on the other three. From the very first second, Noire had transformed into her HDD Form, much to the shock of the others before proceeding to royally beat the ever-loving daylights out of them… with a bit of enthusiasm behind it, too, especially when she struck away at Neptune of all people (well, to be fair, he couldn't say he didn't understand why given his initial impression and interaction with her himself). Looking at the battle, throughout all the explosions, craters, gash marks created by their weapons (with their adversary being who it was, he actually had to commend them for lasting against the initial onslaught), Alex mentally winced at the potential repair costs that Noire would likely have to fork over money for to build this place back to its proper glory. Though, how she'd do that whilst maintaining the secret this place had. Honestly, Alex had half a mind to make a slight prayer for their safety or perhaps even their survival since one very important thing became clear to him: the poor things never stood a chance against her from the start… though, if he understood Noire correctly and he'd like to think he did, then he'd bet that she had been counting on this from the moment that the proposition for a fight to settle the issue of leadership had been announced. If anything, Alex bet that behind that seemingly nonchalant facade, Noire would have literally gained searchlights for eyes with a loud exclamation of 'CHANCE!' in mischievous intent.

'Geez, Lady Noire's holding nothing back on these guys…' The male mentally commented once, grimacing and wincing at the same time as he watched Noire grab Neptune by the back of her hair after getting behind her, drawing her back before raising and slamming the back of her sword into her gut, electing a sharp gasp from her as she got knocked down to the ground beneath them hard enough to form a Neptune shaped crater. 'She must REALLY be venting a lot of stress on her, since she's been targeting poor Neptune more than the other two… I can honestly understand why.' the teen Secretary mused… though he DID make a mental note not to get on Noire's bad side for fear of his life… and his nuts, since he DID see some strikes go suspiciously downwards a couple exchanges at a time. For some reason, it also felt like she was showing off, not just to the Goddesses but also to him as well, those near-crotch shots included, almost as if she… you know what? Let's… not think about that for now, shall we? As he watched her fight the other three (albeit weakened) Goddesses, Alex felt his ears twitch when he picked up a presence approaching him, so he turned his head to look at the source and found it to be Histoire… and she seemed to have a rather complicated look on her face. She held her hands together in front of her chest as she sat crossed legged on her little book, biting her lower lip with her upper teeth though she tried to remain calm and composed about it. Wonder what was up with her? This in mind, Alex mentally tried to figure out why since talking under his breath wouldn't work due to the sounds of battle right at his doorstep, and came to a conclusion that it had to do with the fight itself. "Not liking the brutality in this fight, Histoire?" he questioned, tilting his head at the young looking Tome Fairy.

Upon hearing him ask that question, Histoire looked up from her previous position at him, looking into his eyes almost as if she hadn't even noticed that he was there. "O-Oh, well, I, um…" she tried to say, only for words to come out as unintelligible babble to Alex's ears whilst she looked like she had swallowed something expecting it to be sweet only for it to turn out to be ultra spicy instead. That was what he had gotten from how scrunched up the Tome Fairy's features looked, though it wouldn't be necessary for him to figure out what kind of feelings were swelling throughout her small body at the moment. Eventually however, this faded away as a look of defeat formed on her features as the slight redness which had been building up before faded away, revealing her normal fair complexion underneath. "Yes, you could say that, indeed…" She replied, sighing with sadness darkening her blue eyes. She then shifted her book so that she floated parallel to Alex's head, as well as view the mighty battle taking place before her.

Once he saw how her eyes gained a strong weariness and boredom to them, he got the impression that Histoire had been witness to many battles like these… or rather, battles between these two in particular. "You will likely not know this, however even though I am Neptune's helper with her Nation, I actually provide advice and support to every CPU, all throughout Gamarket's long history, which I also record within my Tome. Every CPU throughout our history, their successes, their failures, life and death, all of it is documented here. This why there's only one of me in all of Gamarket." she explained to him, gesturing to her Tome by pointing down with her index finger. "You could say that I come to see them as my very own sisters or daughters, the latter in this case, so…"

"Ah, I see…" Alex quickly answered with a wince, as whilst he couldn't really relate to how she felt completely, he did understand it a little. He could also see how she must have been over the freaking MOON at the concept of these four finally working together instead of against one another for once, since from what he had understood the Console Wars between the four CPUs have been going on for quite a long time, now, pretty much so much that the original reason FOR the so-called conflict had likely shifted if not outright vanished entirely from history. Histoire must have been eagerly awaiting an opportunity for something like this to happen, at least that's what he felt anyways. "You don't like seeing them fight one another like this. Huh? I can understand that, and even relate to it a bit." He responded further, catching her attention. "Back in my home village… my little sister would often get into fights with other kids her age, most due to her… nature, shall we say. That and people like to make fun of her for her looks." Alex explained, scowling at memories which came to the forefront of his mind. "Growing up, i'd have to help her through some tough scrapes, but there were times where i'd also worry for her safety and feel like a real ass for not being able to do anything to help her, whenever those kinds of situations came around. I'd rather not say more on the subject, but let's just say I can understand not liking seeing close family fight like this, cause it never leads to anything good."

For a moment, Histoire stared at him in surprise, and for some reason the teen got the feeling that he had risen up the levels in terms of her opinion of him. Though, Alex didn't put too much stock on that since even if he could predict things about people he wasn;t necessarily a mind reader. In the end it didn't last very long, and Histoire shifted her features into ones of understanding and happiness. "Well, even if you can;t completely understand, thanks for trying to cheer me up, at least…" she commented, sighing as she aimed a look of gratitude towards him, to which she got a small 'no problem' kind of smile from him in return. "In any case, that aside I'd like to ask something of you, if you don't mind."

"Hm? What is it?"

"What is it that-?"

BOOM!

Before Histoire could ask him her question completely, both their gazes became drawn to the battlefield which the room had been turned into, courtesy of the four CPUs. The cause of the explosion, turned out to be Neptune, Blanc and Vert whom had landed in one big scrambled mess onto the floor, looking like they had gone through a cheese grater with all the wounds that they had sustained. Meanwhile Noire herself, well Black Heart since she was still in her HDD Form, floated down to their level and smirked in satisfaction, having seen that the three opponents of hers had no more energy left to fight her with. With that seen, she then stabbed her large sword into the ground beside her and used it as a makeshift throne, sitting on top of it (stunning Alex at how balanced she had managed to get herself despite the nigh-impossible physics she had just displayed) and crossing her left leg over her right. Her arms did the same thing under her chest as she proudly displayed her haughtiness over her fellow CPUs similar to a certain abridged beater whenever he won an argument or a fight for his '#insert# is always right foundation'. "Hmph, as expected of the lot of you, to think you could defeat ME in your present condition is LAUGHABLE at best."

"Huh… well, that lasted longer than I had thought it would." The young Secretary commented under his breath whilst Histoire frowned at the timing of the battle's end. Sure she didn't want to see the girls whom she viewed as close daughters rip into one another like they have over the centuries, but she had just begun asking questions to Alex about things she had on her mind, things which she felt only he would be able to answer. Looked like she had lost her current chance now, though, but Histoire didn't remain downtrodden about it, since she felt she could ask the questions another time.

Groans of pain and discomfort filled the air as Black Heart drunk in her superiority, pretty much fixing any lingering pride issues she still had since she had still beaten her heated rivals even in the state she had currently found herself in. Hopping off her blade, Black Heart landed in front of it, taking it out by grasping it and yanking hard enough for the blade to jerk itself out the ground, all before striding confidently towards her defeated adversaries. Soon, she got enveloped by a white light and returned to her human form, although her smug as all hell expressions still lingered on her face which made Alex somewhat think of her as a little gremlin who'd gotten what it had wanted at the expense of its rivals. "Now do you see what a TRUE main character is capable of?" she remarked with smugness reaching the 'disgusting!' level.

Meanwhile, a certain purplette whom had cringed to herself about the boastful nature behind that comment, whined like a little brat unable to get her way in a situation as she pushed herself up with her arms, using them as pillars of support since her lower body wasn't listening to her brain's commands at the moment. "No fair… you were the only one who could use HDD…" she whined, making to cross her arms only to fall flat on her face, much to the amusement of the black haired CPU and (although he tried to hide it) Alex himself. Her words did carry something akin to truth to them though, as much as she didn't want to admit it, and that was that Noire herself had an advantage from the very start, one which allowed her to wipe the floor with them just like in the tutorial battle at the beginning of the story! She then lifted her face up, puffing a few strands of hair out of her face, and then aimed a rebellious glare at her fellow deity. "You're totally a game sharker…"

Following after her, the CPU of Lowee managed to recover next, aiming a frown and a fierce glare towards Noire for the defeat. It looked similar to the 'i'mma kill everything!' glares that her HDD self would have used, only in this form she managed to calm her raging internal temper enough to see the facts for what they were. Though, she felt that the injuries she had sustained from Noire's brutal onslaught did help… on both accounts that is. "Not bad, Noire." she admitted calmly, yet there was a bregrudgingness to it as well which the blackette took GREAT pleasure in. She then looked towards her weapon, which had turned back into her human form's weapon with memories of it in its CPU enhanced form literally wrecking whatever defences they had set up. All Goddesses had the ability to imbue their weapons with their Share Energy, transforming them into weapons which were built specifically towards their strongest preferences. In her case it was her Axe, whilst her use of hammers was only a secondary option, so if a CPU who specialized in multiple weapons of the same level of skill, then she likely would either be able to switch between them on the fly or use them at once depending on the weapons themselves. In any case, back to the comments she was making about their defeat. "You had an ace up your sleeve, and we fell into your trap."

"We were made to look quite foolish, indeed. Although, I believe that we are at fault for not seeing this coming, since you agreed to this so readily…" Vert moaned under her breath, but thanks to the room itself everyone managed to hear her words, which caused both Noire to smirk in smug satisfaction and for the other two CPUs to flinch at the accuracy in that statement of hers. Unlike the previous two though, it seemed that Vert's injuries didn't look so bad as she had fought more on the defensive side of things after she had seen Noire turn into her HDD self, something which she had thanked her many years of both gaming and fighting for since it gave her some…. POWERFUL instincts to make quick-second decisions on the fly. As such, thanks to her fighting more defensively and using as many ranged attacks as she had been able Vert had managed to offset most of the damage launched against her, although like the rest of them Vert wouldn't be able to fight further anymore, something which vexed the buxom blonde woman though she couldn't really do much about it. With some subtle movements, Vert managed to ascend herself into a sitting position similar to the one which Neptune currently had herself in, one of her eyes being closed as well. With a hand over her left side which housed a rather nasty-looking gash, Vert couldn't help but add her own comments to the situation she and the other two CPUs had found themselves in. "To think you could best all three of us at once!"

'Well, like she said it's their own fault for not seeing it sooner…' Alex had to think to himself, all the while mentally going over and figuring out Histoire's possible intentions when she had been about to question him earlier. It had been pretty much a given that Noire would have won this battle the moment that he realized during the initial stages that the other three couldn't transform, making his previous worries feel much less founded. Not to mention that it reminded him of a videogame where the player maxes their levels then goes to trash the newbies in the tutorial levels, it just seemed just that unfair. Moreover, thanks to this time, Alex couldn't help but give a mental sigh of relief, relief that things had progressed like this when they had. it seemed that Histoire had grown suspicious about him somehow, something which he honestly feared the worst since it could potentially mean she had come onto his secret condition, a fact which would have alarmed Noire as well if she had heard it too. Not only did they have so little information about it, but if they were asked questions then neither of them would have been able to provide appropriate answers, something which neither looked forward to in that hypothetical scenario.

Meanwhile, Histoire herself (unaware of the cautious gaze barrelling into her back from the male) floated beside Noire as she looked the other CPUs over, concern evident in the Tome Fairy's eyes which prompted the black haired CPU to act. With one hand on her hip, Noire snapped her fingers with an audible 'CLICK!' sound reverberating through the air, and upon doing do she summoned several healing items from her Inventory, Items which she had been storing away just in case she were to need them in an emergency ever since this whole rebuilding thing had first started. Once she handed them over by chucking them at the other three individually, the blackette then let the Tome Fairy speak. "The matter of leadership is settled." she declared, something which nobody would ever be able to refute with thanks to the situation. "Make sure to listen to what Noire tells you, okay? m9(°д°)"

All three CPUs: "Fiiiiiine…"

"Neptune! (¯¯^¯¯)"

All of a sudden, a shout from Histoire caught everyone's attention, and in that moment the atmosphere turned from solemn and depressing, similar to the kind when children were brooding over not getting their way, to a startlingly serious as well as tense one. There was this heavy sense of danger which loomed over the scene, the cause of which being the Tome Fairy whom gradually hovered closer and closer to her prey, (who looked like someone who would be dying in a horror film) slowly cutting off her means of escape. Seeing the approaching danger amassed as a small being, Neptune's face got drained of all colour, fear and dread shining in her eyes. She knew that look, she had seen it many times when Histoire went nuclear on her in terms of her anger… it was NEVER pretty. "Hey, don't single me out!" She wailed, flailing her arms about whilst she tried to toss the situation onto someone else. When she tried this though, something else became known to the Planeptune CPU which caused a bout of confusion to mix itself in with what she had been feeling before. "Wait, where did my buddies go?!"

* * *

"Let us work together to make the world a safer place."

"This is not the time for quarrels."

… Yeah, it's a no brainer that those two made the wise choice and preemptively got the hell outta dodge, isn't it?

* * *

Obviously, back in the room, Neptune did NOT take too kindly to being left behind by these two, as evident by the angry pout forming on her features whilst she quickly dashed away at the speed of a Cheetah. "You turncoats!" she bellowed furiously, jumping through the hole in which she and the others had entered through in the first place. Wait for me!"

"What?! Do not run from me Neptune! Σ(°д°ιιι)"

"Geez. Everyone's so lively."

Having become nothing but an outside witness in the minds of the others, Noire could only watch, sighing in drastic exasperation whilst she planted a hand on her face, shaking her head at the spectacle. She could still hear the yelling that Histoire did as she floated off to chase down and, quite literally, drag Neptune through the burning hells with her scolding. Noire could imagine it as clear as day, though that's not something she found herself taking any form of pride in, especially knowing how the small being could get. Ever heard of the saying big things come in small packages? Whelp, Histoire may as well embody that, due to how she was, power wiseThere was a reason why she and the other CPUs didn't try anything against her, cause despite her small size Histoire could pack more of a punch than any of them… she shuddered, recalling a time when all four of them had incurred her wrath during the Console War… lets just say several Cities nearly got levelled by some of her stray energy attacks.

Then there was the other problem they had to deal with if they wanted to properly unify this world under Lastation's banner: The Generals themselves, something which honestly filled her with both excitement and worry. The Generals of those cities hadn't been happy when their cities got wrecked by Hisroire, one bit, and it took a LOT of negotiations to calm them down, alongside repairs which the CPUs got forced to do by hand by the Tome Fairy. Therefore, as unlikely as she felt that it could be, Noire couldn't say she was someone who recklessly took risks. There would likely be some built-up resentment towards them that they wouldn;'t have been able to show until now. If that wasn't bad enough, then with the CPU currently weaker than them, Noire had no doubts about some of the Generals trying to advance their own agendas and, therefore, go out of whack. She could imagine a few who would do such things with the way their personalities were, but because of how diverse their abilities were there were also those whom would desire peace more than conflict. In essence, it all came down to the personality of the General in question, whether or not they would agree to co-operate… if not, they may demand something like a fight to see who's in the right in the given scenario.

By the way, as she heard the sounds of carnage outside, whilst mentally fretting over the repair costs, Noire couldn't help but smirk knowingly whilst shaking her head, placing a hand on her hip. She had already predicted in her mind that the others would leave Neptune to the curve to save their own skins, she would have done the same thing in their position… it wasn't like her distaste and annoyance for the small bratty CPU (other than Blanc, though she could say the same for her) had anything to do with her choice, nope not at all.

"I'd definitely say so… I get the feeling that things won't be quiet around here for a LONG while. Though, Histoire DID almost question me earlier..."

Upon hearing her Secretary Alex mention about Histoire, or rather the fact that she had grown suspicious about their story already, gave a low and heavy sigh, one which fully expressed the resignation and reluctance she felt at hearing that being the situation. It didn't really surprise her since the Tome Fairy was NOTHING like Neptune when it came to being easily fooled, Almost nothing escaped her gaze, and that in of itself could be seen as a double edged sword. It took her a while to gather the information she'd need depending on the size, the lowest being 3 days, and the worst being about 3 years. Hence, she likely would have been sharp enough to notice that something was amiss with the story that they had told her, but with the information she'd have to sort through Histoire likely wanted to ask them first before investigating on their own. Though, she had mentally hoped nonetheless that they would have some extra time before confronting her on this issue. "#SIGH# yeah, we're going to have to come clean eventually, if you ask me Histoire's sharper than all four CPUs and all the Generals put together. If she didn't have such limits to her ability to acess information from that Tome of hers, I'd dare say she could be the most powerful being on the planet. Therefore, hearing that she's been clueing in on you is something that I kind of expected, but I wished we could have had more time to investigate. Perhaps she could come with us when we inspect your body, Alex, that might delay her questions for a bit so we can get some answers for us all." She suggested at the end, prompting a nod from Alex on all those accounts. Like Noire, he too got the feeling that Histoire had a high INT stat, so her seeing through their attempts to cover up his involvement in the previous battle wasn't a surprise to him. What he DID get surprised at was the slight whisper which Noire added at the end there. "But in the end a certain fact is still present: All this came from the Shares I gained from the faith you put in me. So… thank you."

"Hm? What's that? You tend to mumble to yourself quite a bit..."

"N-Nothing."

"... alright then. Oh yeah, I guess this would be the right time to mention this: I hope we can get along for the foreseeable future, I'll do my bst to make you proud."

"Good. Welcome aboard."

* * *

Following this incident… multiple things happened.

First off, Noire and Alex had left the room to get outside the Basilicom, where Histoire had caught up with and had proceeded to scold Neptune heavily (and Alex got a much greater experience on why people should fear the Tome Fairy's wrath, thus he developed the same kind of fear that the CPUs did… only they feared her way more since they saw firsthand what an angry Histoire could be capable of) for her conduct of leaving her behind in a battle which had lead to Histoire taking shelter in Lastation, something which the teen had little clue on as he hadn't been there to witness the battle himself. For a moment, everyone seemed to be perfectly content to just watch the whole thing, varying levels of amusement (interestingly enough there wasn't much sympathy at all, though Alex could hardly blame the three for this) as Neptune suffered a fate which she most likely rightfully deserved, not intervening to help her out… at least, until about 5 minutes later when Alex strode in and convinced the Tome Fairy to let the purplette off for the time being since they had other matters to attend to. For some reason he got the feeling someone was looking at him like he was their saviour or something when he had done that, but since he had an idea of where (or rather whom) it had come from, he didn't feel the need to bring it any attention.

Second, it was decided that, no small thanks to all the shitty events that had happened with the City, Gamarket as a whole, and a general consensus of not wanting to do anything else today (kind of ironic that they were like this when they'd just been all about solving Gamarket's problem together, but whatever), that some rest would be best for the newly assembled party. That Party consisting of the Four CPUs, with one combat-capable Secretary. In order for them TO get that rest though, since a significant portion of Lastation was still under repairs, Noire had directed them all to a Hotel built to house the CPUs whenever they visited… and still have space left over so that they could put in some more people. That meant that the Generals whom potentially could join them would likely be staying in that hotel if they weren't at their own cities doing their own thing. But for the time being, it would be the home of the other CPUs, and since that had been its general purpose to begin with this place had been built with specialized facilities for their needs, making it less of a hotel and more of a large resort kind of thing. These Goddesses and their luxuries… honestly, Alex MAY have gotten a bit overwhelmed when he'd first laid eyes upon it, ESPECIALLY when Neptune tried teasing him by pulling him into her room only for the male to resist like all hell until Noire broke him free of her hold. Of course, Alex could have jerked himself free, but he didn't want to arouse suspicion about his power just yet. At least, until Noire got some kind of answer to explain the changes which had taken place within his body.

* * *

As of right now…

"Alright, now that the idiots have been taken care of, let's get to the bottom of this."

"Yeah, lets. Getting REAL antsy without knowing what's going on in me here."

Alex spoke in a hushed tone, hissing under his breath as he held his forehead with his left hand's index finger and thumb. Though, to be frank, if the climate had been colder like in some areas outside of the Continent, then he likely would have released a long stream of breath when he'd done this. Right now, he and Noire strode through the streets, the teen walking behind his 'boss' at her left flank. The two strode down the sidewalk, heading through some of the less damaged streets towards the Basilicom, which fortunately hadn't been damaged as bad as Noire had initially wondered so it would be possible to use it for their own purposes, This suited them just fine since Noire now had the chance to FINALLY start gathering information for the questions which BOTH of them wanted answered, for the sake of their sanity at least. With so many things which had happened before, it had only been right now that they had gotten the chance to do their own thing, so neither of them wasted ANY more time.

"Don't worry, as my Secretary and my savior, i'll not rest until I paid off my debt to you. Now come, my Basilicom has a Laboratory, we can take some samples of your blood. From what I've seen, it seems that your abilities are biological in nature, so if we take some blood samples we can probably." Noire responded, glancing behind her at him with her Twintails twirling in response to her head movement. Whilst she had been pretty preoccupied with the previous issues, Noire had also found some time to ponder how she could have even tried getting some answers, remembering everything she had seen about the ability and how it had worked. Thus, she had theorized that the ability had biological properties, and as such it could be possible to get some answers from taking some blood samples, nothing major since Noire herself wasn't anything remotely CLOSE to a scientist. Part of her actually wondered what they would find, which fuelled her desire to know more.

"Yeah, got it. Makes sense, really… and, now that I think about it, what would happen to me once we find out some answers?" Alex questioned after pondering on her response for a few seconds. It wasn't the best way they could look into this issue, he felt, but it was something at least. Still, part of him couldn't help but be tense about what they could potentially find out… to him, he kept getting the feeling of walking into a deep, dark void where all thoughts of a happy ending became non-existent, snuffed out like flickering embers then thrown away like yesterday's garbage. Heck, what if things devolved into those dark action movies where the leaders of large organisations discover something new and try to turn the helpless victim into a test subject who ends up dead at the end of it all.

Glancing behind her, Noire made to answer her Secretary's question with a casual 'we'll get to that when we get to it', but then her eyes caught the unsure, worried and anxious look in his own, which caused her to shut her mouth. 'Those eyes… I guess all this must really be shaking him up inside...' she thought to herself, a look of comprehension reaching her as she frowned internally. Ever since everything blew over, Noire hadn't put much thought into it aside from constantly reminding herself so she wouldn't forget, but she never really asked the guy if he was… well, alright. Like, if he was having any trouble adjusting to his apparent abilities. This revelation made an imaginary arrow to the gut strike her dead on, nearly causing Noire to buckle over with the ensuing eruption of guilt in her chest, similar to a bomb going off. 'I'm not being a very good leader, am I…? Not even a day, and I'm already messing up…' she thought further, until she shook her head to dismiss those negative thoughts from her mind as she looked back to him. "No need to get all huffy about it now, you know." she started, turning her head away from Alex for the time being. "There's no point, after all it's not like I'll be doing anything to you without your consent, that'd be just stupid. So quit your worrying about that stuff, if anyone tries to convince you otherwise then stand your ground! That's what a Lastation citizen would do!"

Upon hearing her words, Alex stiffened as his eyes widened, almost freezing completely had he not mentally forced himself to keep walking in order to keep pace with his Boss. He wasn't hearing things, right? He wasn't going deaf, was he? A few seconds passed as his heart pounded within his chest, the look she gave him confirming the answers to those questions. Not only that, but her words served to send an electric shock through his mind, especially the end part where he had initially felt urged to correct her by saying he wasn't a Lastation Citizen until he stopped that thought process in its tracks. 'She just…' The male thought, stopping himself from making multiple double takes. Not even a day and somehow, Alex had already made a decent enough impression on the CPU to warrant being called a Citizen of her Nation… He had been worried a lot about that, especially with the reputation that Noire had cultivated during her years of working as Lastation's ruler. Thoughts like that circulated through his mind, causing a small smile to spread onto his face. Whilst small, that smile contained no small amount of happiness and relief, not to mention that he could believe her words from what little he'd seen of her actions before too. "Yeah… got it, Lady Noire." he finally stated after getting his act together, losing his previous stiffness and thus proceeding to continue the stride with a much more relaxed pacing.

Thanks to seeing this, Noire gave a nod as a pleased smile formed on her lips, turning her head to face the direction she walked in as the rest of the walk continued on in silence.

* * *

By the time that the duo reached the Basilicom…

"Ah, you two have arrived."

… A certain someone floated near the entrance, seemingly waiting for them if the looks she gave to them were any indication. With the small frame she sported along with the ever so familiar book she sat on as a floating platform, one could pretty much figure out her identity. "Ah, Histoire…" Noire stated like she had seen an angry parent waiting to punish her for being naughty, trailing off afterwards though initially her beginning sentence contained a spark of surprise. As a result, it soon ended with Noire saying the Tome Fairy's name with a mix of knowingness and no small amount of resignation, having a PRETTY good idea as to why this person had shown up here and what she would most likely be after. Seeing Histoire at the Basilicom may have surprised her a bit, and behind her the CPU could sense the sudden tensity that Alex had went through the corner of her eye until he calmed down by exhaling through his nose, something which she had also done. "Glad to see that you're here… any particular reason why you're not resting with that slacker and the rest?" the blackette questioned whilst placing a hand on her hip.

"... I do believe you two are already aware of why it is that I am here, Noire, I would think that you would not be so foolish as to not guess that much, given the fact that you two have clearly been trying to keep something under wraps." Historie responded after a small silence, her eyes narrowing slightly into a suspicious glare, one more aimed at Noire than Alex though as if she didn't consider him to be as much at fault as the CPU herself. Floating on over to the two of them, Histoire stopped when she was right in front of the blackette, sort of invading her personal space but a combination of PTSD and icy dread in the pit of her stomach at the intensity of her gaze stopped the said blackette from pulling any funny business. "I'm quite frankly disappointed that you would try to hide something from me of all people Noire, but I will reserve judgement until I hear your reasoning behind your actions young lady."

'Wow… such a forceful demeanor and brutal tone… and Noire's not even fighting back, although I guess I can see why since I feel like I want to run away to the farthest corner of the world and pray for my soul…'

Yeah, Alex had some experience with this kind of gaze growing up in his home village, the memory of which overlapped with the Tome Fairy's current expression which resulted in his instincts SCREAMING to get his ass outta there before he became the target of what wrath Histoire had begun cooking up in that little head of hers. Back when he was a kid, he and his sister sometimes got scolded by his mother whenever they managed to pull off some revenge pranks on other kids who bullied them. His mother had a similar expression to the one Histoire had right now, and that expression had become the source of many a nightmare that had plagued his childhood for years. Didn't stop him from getting back at bullies though, especially when his little sister was involved.

In the end, Noire sighed once more as she decided that the jig was up, and that it would be good to first let Histoire know of the situation anyways now that she thought about it. She guessed that the best reason why she hadn;t told the Planeptune citizen had been due to paranoia as well as a desire to focus on other matters first, since she had still, and was still currently, plagued by guilt for her own mistakes that lead to this situation in the first place. "Well, that's what we're here to find out ourselves, Histoire." she began to explain, opening her eyes and levelling a serious stare towards her. "This could be bad you see, very bad, so me and my Secretary here are going to my Basilicom' science and research department in order to get some things checked out."

"Eh? Things? What things?"

"It'd be better to just show you, but for now we'll explain whilst we walk. Secretary, you tell her from your point of view and i'll fill her in on anything that needs to be clarified from my perspective."

"Got it."

* * *

"Huh, so that's how it is…"

After the whole incident that had happened outside the Basilicom entrance, Histoire accompanied them to one of the few Laboratories located in the Science and Research Department that the Basilicom possessed. According to Noire herself, Lastation's Basilicom had been built with all kinds of different departments, so that the place could function as a multi-purpose facility, although in case anybody wanted to derail their efforts she had ordered for this fact to be concealed from the public, instead having built some 'fake' facilities in their stead. Of course they were regularly maintained as if they were in use all the darn time, if they didn't she would feel ashamed as Lastation's Goddess, but one could NOT say she would risk the safety of her people or spies from other Nations trying to get the drop on her by 'sampling' information about her projects. This hadn't actually been her idea though, since instead it had been the idea of some of the followers she had at the time, whom had experience with this kind of thing, something which Noire currently felt MUCH gratitude towards since they could still operate with some level of efficiency.

Along the way, Alex had taken it upon himself thanks to Noire's word, to explain things to Histoire, or rather, he explained the Tale of what they had gone through but without the edited parts which they had used, the first time. As such, he explained to her about the unknown Monster, the mysterious abilities he possessed ( very nearly, albeit unintentionally, freaking her out when his hand, which had put its finger on her shoulder, suddenly shifted itself into his Pincer), and finally how things about him have slowly shifted from one change to another. By the time that everything had been explained, the trio had reached the Department, of which Noire had gotten them permission to use an entire Laboratory for their own needs, just for privacy and secrecy purposes really. Noire didn't fool herself into thinking there wouldn't be anyone in her employ who would brag about this to the public, gossip spread around quite quickly after all. By the time that things had settled down though and Alex had told the Tome Fairy the whole story as Noire had went to fetch the tools they'd need, the Secretary had to release a mildly exasperated sigh. "Yeah, it was kept a secret for these reasons…"

"Well, I can certainly understand Noire's motivations now…" Histoire admitted with a light bead of sweat trailing down her forehead, mostly due to the fact that Alex still had his Pincer out, its twisted and grotesque visage REALLY unnerving her although out of respect for the Secretary she didn't let it get to her. "Before I continue, may you please shift that arm back to normal?"... well, perhaps it unnerved her a little too much right now, maybe in the future she would get used to it. As such, her ensuing anxious request prompted the male to realize he still had that appendage out and, with a quick stuttered apology alongside a slightly frantic look appearing on his face, return it to normal. "Thank you, and as I mentioned, what Noire did makes more sense now. The precariousness of this situation does indeed warrant some level of caution, not to mention her recently being betrayed by that Eno woman…" Histoire remarked, although she did have a slightly displeased expression still. "However, that one is still on her for being so trusting so easily. Usually she's the very opposite of that… it must have been when she was so close to unifying things that it got to her head."

Yeah, Alex could see that happening, to be frank. But he couldn't say more since Noire returned at this time, carrying a box filled with tools. "Alright you two, enough fooling around. Let's get these tests started, shall we?" she declared, getting nods from them before they proceeded to set things up. In the end, they got a sample of Alex's blood,something which had made him visibly RECOIL with Tendrils angrily swirling about the limbs which they tried to extract from (took over half an hour to get the sample, actually), and placed it on a small circular glass tray to then place under a scope.

That done, Noire took the lead in looking through the scope, analyzing the contents of the blood itself.

"?!"

"Wha?!"

"Kya!"

Not even a few SECONDS in though, did the blackette gasp, alongside Alex and Histoire who also covered her face, when the blood itself suddenly EXPLODE into a large mass of dark green coloured spikes. Each of them rivalled a person's entire arm in length, as well as ended up shredding through both the tray, the scope AND the Table itself nigh instantaneously. This also ended up sending several dozens of glass shards and destroyed equipment debris flying around in all directions, a shockwave erupted forth from the motion which blew Noire backwards since she had been the closest. Sliding across the floor, said blackette managed to stop herself after clearing about 6 meters before she raised her head to look at where the Spikes had formed… only, to see them having just finished disintegrating into nothingness. This allowed her to see a… moderate amount of destruction dealt to the Laboratory, the Table having been smashed to pieces by the Spikes whilst several cuts and holes littered the floor. The moment she saw this, an angry scowl formed on her lips as she gave her verdict. "Alright then, looks like we wasted our time here. Seems like whatever this thing inside Alex is, it's not going to let us examine it…"

"Not necessarily." The male responded, frowning as both her and Histoire (whom had uncovered her face at this point) turned their attention towards him. Throughout that whole little event, not once did he shy away nor did he put up any covering attempt like Histoire did. No, it felt more like he didn't have to, like no matter what something deep inside assured him that none of the Spikes NOR any debris would be able to hit him. It felt… weird, to be sure, not to mention a little scary yet comforting at the same time. "We know from this little event that whatever's inside me is indeed sentient, which means we're likely dealing with some kind of organism. Furthermore, when I think back to how we fought those monsters Noire, I began to analyze EVERYTHING about the times when I… pulled in, or rather CONSUMED their remains. To me, it felt similar to placing some of 'myself' in those things, and that served to stop the monsters from disintegrating long enough for the rest of this… thing, to work its own magic. Its weird to refer to this thing and me as the same being, but this feels both wrong as well as right at the same time. In any case, what I want to say is that I can see this as some form of advanced 'infection'... which means…"

At this point, both girls quickly got what he wanted to say as their brains processed the information he told them about. "We're dealing with either some kind of infectious organism like a bacteria or disease… but, it doesn't seem to work the same way as common diseases do not completely." Histoire commented, assuming a thinking pose similar to those lead characters in detective movies do. It didn't take long for her to continue her analysis over this information, either. "Furthermore, I distinctly recall you bumping into several people on the way to Noire's office Alex, and I have detected no abnormalities from them up till now. Not to mention it's been a significantly long time since, and compared to how fast this sample reacted, that means this thing is quite quick to infect others. This likely means that whilst infection is indeed part of its nature, it doesn't seem to do so without your input, which speaks VOLUMES about the level of connection it has to you."

Yeah, that was what Alex got from this as well, the teen looking down at his right arm as he held it in front of his eyes. Tendrils seemed to swivel around the forearm as if they were responding to his gaze like servants to their sole master, something which Alex found himself slightly mesmerized to see. "I can see that, yeah. In any case, I think the main thing we can take from this is that I won't be considered a threat to the City and Party's safety, at least." Not like he'd EVER let this thing infect the girls if he could help it. It was more of an instinctual thing, but Alex just couldn't help but get the feeling that this power was best kept to solely himself, and that trying to pass it on to others would only end HORRIBLY. Just from the context they'd discovered alone proved this approach correct, but the more he thought about it, the more that ideology grew in prominence within his mind, for infecting someone with an unknown disease just screamed trouble. Moreover, now they could hopefully explain all their findings to the other CPUs now that they knew more about what they were dealing with. "Think we should-?"

"Not yet."

"Huh?"

"You heard me." Noire stated again, this time harder as Alex blinked owlishly at her. His features expressed his surprise, as she continued to explain on what she meant by those words. "Let's keep what we've learned a secret for the time being, unless things happen that force us to let the truth get out. I'll be honest, we've been fighting for a long time now, me and the other CPUs. Do you really think we can just up and trust one another so easily? After what happened with Eno, I'm not taking those kinds of chances again when this time I nearly lost EVERYTHING I had, plus we don't even know who we can trust with this info anymore. That Eno, how did she know when to meet with me? Where did she get the knowledge from? When did she see that it would be time to strike? How long has she been planning this for? There's actually so much we DON'T KNOW about her, things which I'm always smacking myself for forgetting at the crucial moment. For all we know, that woman could have allies throughout the Land, an information Network of some kind. Histoire, don't' contest me on this, you know i'm not wrong." she explained to him, before glancing over and speaking to the Tome Fairy when she had been made to say something back to her.

Said being however, waited a few seconds before she too began to speak, a resigned sigh escaping her when she saw the unflinching look of resolve in Noire's eyes. "No, you're not completely wrong…" In all honesty, Histoire should have seen this coming, that Noire wouldn't put much trust in the CPUs right away. It would be foolish to expect otherwise, and the fact that she had overlooked this fact herself showed Histoire that she had been too hasty earlier. She'd been so excited at the fact that the four had begun to work together instead of fighting for once that she forgot about their previous conflicts. Nobody could just TRUST someone who they've been fighting against so easily and quickly. Plus, this was Noire she was talking about, she wasn't as naive as Neptune, if anything she could be considered Neptune's direct opposite. Whilst the latter constantly acted lazy and snobbish until her HDD Transformation which rewrites her mind to make her act like a true Goddess would, Noire was essentially a true Goddess all the time: hard-working and determined, not to mention filled with nigh tyrannical levels of pride and confidence in herself. This didn't yet take into consideration the other two Goddesses, but if Histoire were to rank them for worst to best in terms of their work, Noire herself ironically would be at the very top, followed closely behind by Blanc, then Vert and finally Neptune...

Kinda sad, now that she thought about it.

None of this suggested that she would give up her side of the argument though, as whilst Noire had her pride and stubborn issues, she herself held similar traits. She had to, if she wanted to be the one to force Neptune to do her CPU work back home., "Then, what about young Alex over here?" the Tome Fairy questioned, gesturing to Alex whom decided to remain quiet, knowing that this wasn't something he should be getting involved in. Well, to say that he didn't want to would be a lie, but he himself currently had immersed himself in figuring out a counter to Noire's logic... however, not many of them could prove satisfactory to him, not like the Tome Fairy knew any of this though as she continued. "You say that you can't trust them easily, but you put your faith into a practical stranger, right? What's the difference between him and Eno to you, then?"

Alright, now Alex felt a little irritated at being compared to the likes of this Eno woman, he didn't exactly get why himself but the male figured it had to do with the woman's actions against Lastation's CPU. "Well, for starters I proved myself trustworthy so far, though I doubt that Lady Noire trusts me much more than the others." Alex countered, surprising both girls at the fact that he had jumped straight into the conversation. Nonetheless, he continued. "I mean, she's only just met me, so she has every reason to be doubtful of me, i'd consider her a fool to expect otherwise. I may not agree completely with her choice in this matter, but in the end its her choice and i'm her Secretary. I can only help her bear what burdens I can." A Secretary's job would be to assist their boss in a variety of different tasks in order to make sure an organisation, or a Nation in this case, ran smoothly after all. Therefore, Alex remained aware of the fact that he couldn't do the same thing for her that he did when she had been at her lowest.

Hearing his words, both women remained split between shock and surprise, although for their own reasons. In Noire's case, she felt two conflicting emotions inside of her, ones she felt... complicated about. For one, she felt glad that her Secretary showed himself to be capable of understanding her perspective of things, it really made things easier for her, since she could then potentially explain things with better hopes that he can understand her views on them. Yet, that also gave her a sense of caution, for the reasons which Alex had already stated though deep down her mind RAGED at her for suspecting him of being a potential threat. Since well, she DID say that she wouldn't treat him as ANYTHING like a lab rat before, it kind of felt like a paradox of emotion to her, and she didn't like it. On one hand she wouldn't see him as a threat, yet deep down she could only be wary of his future actions...

Noire felt like a hypocrite that way.

As for Histoire...

"Haaahhhh... I see..." she stated this with a sigh of resignation, understanding what Alex was saying as much as she wanted to argue vehemently against them. Not only did she see how he seemed to share similar traits to Lastation's CPU, but it also seemed that they had gotten onto each other's wavelength and wouldn't be backing down o this situation. It seemed to her, that the damage that Eno had done to Noire's trust in others had been much more extensive than she had realized, though there was hardly anything she could do to change that. "I'll agree to keep this a secret for the time being then, not like there aren't that many within my Tome, after all." she commented bitterly, yet with a sense of acceptance which cast a heavy shadow upon Noire and Alex's hearts. "I just hope things will turn out for the better in the near future..."

"So do I, Histoire, so do I..."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Following that conversation, Noire, Alex and Histoire decided in unison to try a few more tests to see if they could glean any more information regarding the behaviour of whatever lay inside of him. To be fair though, each of them had agreed that the most likely possible answer could be some kind of virus due to one of the machines being a scanner having identified one flowing through the male's bloodstream. Though, what kind of virus this could be evaded them since none of them had EVER seen a virus act the way that this one did, acting like it had full sentience or at least partial, as well as the way it worked in its previous appearances… who knew what else the thing was capable of either? They literally had hardly any more info about it than what they'd observed before.

However, this didn't remain the central focus for very long in their minds since a new problem arose and contested with it for dominance over their minds: the awkward atmosphere born from the aftermath of Noire's previous decision to keep the nature of Alex's powers a secret. The majority of it wasn't coming from the two of the Lastation residents however, but instead it came from their Planeptune resident instead. As they had worked in vain to get more data, Histoire may have looked like she had gotten over it, though her expressions only seemed plastic to the other two, telling them all that they needed to know about the subject… thing was, only one of them had a shred of worry about the Tome Fairy at the moment, and that wasn't Noire herself.

To be fair though, the blackette had justifiable reason to be wary right now, and not just because of her position as a leader of a Nation. She'd just recently lost practically all that she had spent so long trying to build, if it weren't for her strong mental fortitude and her own drive to succeed, nobody would have blamed her for losing all which remained of her sanity and committing suicide. If anything, one could expect her to do so after such a crushing blow… though, on the other hand, Alex himself knew one fact about Noire which likely helped her get through the hardest of it, and it wasn't just because of what he'd said to her about making mistakes: that Noire finally had a target. An outlet for her anger, and that turned out to be Eno herself. Her goals may not have changed much since the past, but it seemed that a spark of revenge had been ignited within her, the teen knew this for a fact since he'd seen it in her eyes, having recognized it from some of his 'past escapades'. In this case, she's likely using that as another reason to keep the nature of his powers secret, asa hidden trump card to use against Eno and her plans.

If one asked him how he felt about that, then Alex would admit to feeling a little indignant about that since she seemed to see him as less than he really was, a person, however the male understood her motives and mental state, so he didn't really mind as much. It was just as he had said before, even Leaders tend to make mistakes, and right now Noire seemed to be trying her best to keep focused on the task at hand so she didn't end up repeating herself. Though, one thought did cross his mind, and that was if any of the other CPUs had noticed these changes in Noire. Neptune he definitely didn't think so unless her HDD Form came out (although with her lack of Shares that could be a while), but maybe Blanc and Vert might. According to what he'd heard about them, Blanc was quite a reader, which meant that she had keen eyes born from reading so much. The way she kept so much as a blank facade also implied that she had great observation abilities, her intelligence not being for show. As for the blonde woman, Alex felt like she may not be as smart as Blanc, but that didn't mean she would lose to her in terms of being observant. She HAD to have some form of calculative prowess if her Nation had been going toe to toe against the other three, right?

At least, that was his perspective on the whole situation.

* * *

Once everything had been settled and they'd confirmed to be unable to gather any more data (not without risking destroying more equipment, that is) the trio returned to the CPU Hotel for the night… well, Noire and Histoire did, as apparently Alex himself didn't feel any fatigue despite the long day that he had. Like, he felt like he could literally run circles around the entire City without rest and still have room for more, a bit of a weird feeling to be honest. If Neptune had seen this, she likely would have made some random ass comment about it, only to get scolded by the rest of them. However she wasn't, and instead the blackette CPU had frowned in jealousy at this, and when asked about it by her Secretary she had vehemently denied it, although she did explain afterwards about how it was likely another effect of the Virus in his system. Hey, when it had done what they'd seen it do so far, pretty much anything was possible, this WAS unknown territory for them and all that.

Hence, Noire decided to give Alex a task to do tonight whilst she thought of how to best make use of this information:

Patrol the city.

Thus, that was what Alex was doing right now, jumping across rooftops one after another, flipping through the air and doing so many different parkour stunts that professionals would go green with envy. The teen held his expression in a blank one for the time being as he currently had jumped off a small building's rooftop (though saying that didn't feel right since a lot of Lastation's buildings easily surpassed multiple stories) and slammed into the side of another building… before proceeding to move fast before Gravity could catch up to him and then ran up the side of the taller building, having made sure to stick to a section which kept him away from windows since he didn't want to damage them.

Yeah, running up buildings was a thing he could do, aside from running really fast and jumping insanely high. Whatever he had seemed to excel in breaking the laws of physics, not like he minded though, since it both made his job as a secretary easier (though he had a feeling that Noire would likely make him work MUCH harder than other employees thanks to this, he shuddered at that inevitability since he had heard a few workers comment about her being a literal slave driver) as well as complicated things for him. Knowing that he could do all these things sure sounded great, but they weren't things an ordinary human could do, and what things they COULD do like him such as the fast running, he bet that he could outclass them soon enough. Therefore… Alex honestly felt a little bit lonely right now, cut off from humanity and any source of kinship.

Was this what creatures close to extinction felt like? Like their end was coming and nothing would remain of them?

A scary thought to think about…

As Alex reached the top of the building's ledge, he flipped himself forwards in order to vault over it, landing on top of the building's rooftop with an audible THUD sound, much to his chagrin. 'Damn, have to watch how much force I'll have to put into my movements from now on, since it seems that my improvements have put my body out of whack.' the teen thought to himself slowly rising upwards and putting his hands inside his coat, proceeding to turn around and overlook the rest of the entire City.

Thanks to the time being close to midnight, the male found himself able to see the night sky above him, one which had dozens of stars twinkling like tiny little lights in the darkness surrounding them… although the full moon towering over the city easily overshadowed the Stars surrounding it. The teen couldn't help but eye it in amazement, for no matter how much time passed, to him one of the most beautiful things in Gamarket wasn't ANYTHING on the planet itself ironically enough, but beyond it, untouched by all this chaos, conflict and corruption. If anything, Alex would have liked to live on the moon, if it were even possible, although part of him felt that would have 'tainted' the moon's beauty somewhat like the majority of things humans touched these days.

'Wow, it's only been a couple days but i'm starting to see myself as non-human…'

That thought both amazed AND frightened the male at the same time, since it meant that he had slowly started drifting away from humanity, especially the more that he learned about his own self and his new abilities. Losing that connection to humanity completely though… that was NOT something which he had wanted, nope no sir. He didn't want to lose it, since he still had family left in this world… his mother and younger sister.

Thinking about those two brought their smiling visages inside his mind, causing Alext to step back as he held his head with his right hand, a worried grimace escaping him. 'Right, how could I forget about THEM…?' he cursed himself mentally, a whole new worry layering itself onto him. Now that he thought about it, what would his family think about his current situation? That he potentially could be something far worse than ANY kind of monster, one which preyed on pretty much anything regardless if it were monster or not? Alex had felt this way since he had found out shortly into his patrol, when a man got harassed by a series of thugs in a back alley way… when he'd moved to step in… Alex hardly recalled what had happened, but what he did recall was this… this rush. His mind and body went on autopilot which got followed by rapid motions, swinging of an appendage similar to his Pincer so it likely had been it, as well as the shrill cries of the thugs as he taught them a VALUABLE lesson.

Then, things turned for the worse, for if things had ended there then the experience wouldn't have been so scarring for him. After defeating the last thug, Alex must have sustained some significant damage because he remembered feeling…. Hungry, yeah that's the word he could use to describe it. This feeling which flooded every cell in his body from his gut, like a vicious and mighty roar from a lion combined with thousands of stings from a swarm of bees upon each individual cell. What happened next, Alex could hardly recall at all, just some basic stuff like it had happened and he had been powerless to stop it.

By the time that he had come back to his senses, to the teen's horror, he had ended up butchering ALL of them in a sick and twisted yet brutally effective manner, the man he'd been trying to save included. He'd killed innocent civilians of Lastation, a crime pretty much, making him a MURDERER. The shock and realization of this nearly caused him to enter a full blown panic attack, had what happened next not took priority. For the moment that he had killed that innocent man in his strange 'blood rage' he guessed, his body had erupted with the Tendrils that formed his Pincer, then proceeded to consume the corpses including the spilt blood, leaving nothing remaining. This ended up showing him ANOTHER power which he had that had split him from humanity:

Memories.

Turned out that, whenever he had consumed a living person, he didn't just get power from it, but also the ability to 'shift' his entire form to look EXACTLY like that person, like wearing a suit or a second skin over himself. It didn't seem to be limited to just one person either, since Alex managed to shift between the man AND the beggars simultaneously when he'd tried it out from some sick sense of morbid curiosity. As freaky and uncomfortable that sounded, if it were just that then MAYBE he could have gotten over it quickly whilst hoping to never have to use the ability ever… only telling Noire about it if he got the chance.

But, like he'd mentioned before, Alex had also gotten something else aside from power and forms, their MEMORIES. He could recall each and every memory that the consumed victims received, sort of like watching a movie but in his mind, and with the highest quality detail. Those memories were stored somewhere inside his mind, but the first time he got them… well, it had been the most agonizingly painful thing he had ever experienced. He had felt 'lost', like he'd lost his sense of self, his own identity since consuming them felt like their very personalities and identities were merged with his own. It was like he just wasn't his own person but someone else, and THAT turned out to be more terrifying than the scariest of monsters.

Perhaps consuming monsters only would be the better choice here, since consuming PEOPLE made him feel like an absolute MONSTER… just like the creatures the CPUs put down for the sake of their people...

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...Great, as if he didn't have enough to deal with, now there's the possibility of THIS cropping up on him too.

'#SIGH# so much has been gleaned to me, and I don't even know how to make sense of it all…' Alex thought with a heavy mental sigh released inside his head, slowly making to sit down on the ledge and overlook the city. All those issues piled up, from the discovery of more things that he could do as well as the weight of the crime which he had committed unintentionally had left him feeling rather… weary. He wanted to at least have some normalcy like having some sleep or something.

Sadly, that would never come to pass, for whenever he closed his eyes Alex saw the memories of those whom he had killed, screaming as he had taken their lives in vivid detail, letting him relive those moments with perfect clarity there. Moments which the teen feared that he would be able to relive for as long as he lived… which could maybe be forever, he didn't know the limits of this power after all, if there were any. The memories of their terrified faces as they contorted into pained agony upon their deaths haunted his thoughts, no matter how many times he tried to stop it, causing Alex to grit his teeth as he fought the urge to it didn't take long for him to realize that, likely another change from this virus inside of him, but he no longer had the ability TO cry.

'What have I become…? What WILL I end up becoming…? Something less than human… or something more...?'

This marked the first true time that Alex truly FELT like a genuine monster.

Fortunately for him, after that first incident with the thugs and consuming both them as well as their victim, something he did NOT intend and never wanted to do again, Alex quickly managed to figure out how to keep himself controlled as he went about stopping minor crimes thefts and extortion etc. It helped that the 'memories' (he did NOT want to get used to that, but something told Alex that he would have to eventually) he got from those first few thugs told him of… more than a few places where those criminals currently resided until he found them. Lets just say the Lastation Police force had a LOT of people to cover for a night.

'Well… at least these powers are good for SOMETHING other than killing…'

Raising his right arm, Alex let it morph into his Pincer, experimentally swinging it around in a lazy manner, yet his eyes contained the opposite expression. With him currently taking a break since he'd spent hours scouring the city for any signs of trouble, the male felt like a short one had been a bit necessary, especially so that he could gather his thoughts about what he had learned about himself, As much as Alex hated that these powers were used in the way that they were, a part of him still felt glad that he had done so NOW when it had been just him, instead of a scenario where the girls ALL learned of the true nature of his current self. How could he have handled that? Alex didn't know, and even more he didn't want to know. 'Look at me, here I am thinking about all this shit when I have next to no answers about anything anymore, just mere guesses and speculation… I kind of feel like I'm becoming some sort of angst-filled edgelord at this point…' he thought to himself, a bitter chuckle escaping his lips. Looking back to the city, Alex stood up from his spot and observed everything once again, preparing to jump off to another building…

"Awwww, leaving so soon?"

"?!"

… Only for his eyes to widen into saucers when he heard a slimy sounding, masculine voice remark with fake sadness and disappointment. Instinctively on the alert, Alex twirled around to face the person whom had spoken… but then got forced into a gasp when something slammed into him, as in it hit him in the gut. This resulted in him being sent flying across the entire city and outside of it, sort of reminiscent of a shooting star if anyone had looked out their windows and saw his speeding form.

By the time that his impromptu flight came to an end…

CRASH!

Alex landed roughly with a loud crash, sliding along the ground to create a human sized fissure in the dirt, lengthening it till about 30 meters. By the time that the teen stopped, Alex groaned as he groggily stood up, holding his head with his sole untransformed hand, stumbling a bit during his attempts to regain his footing. A fierce blaze burned at the back of his head, causing Alex to twist his features into a pained grimace as he glanced behind him at his back to see if he had any injuries. To his horror and morbid fascination, 'injured' could be considered an UNDERSTATEMENT for comparing his back's current state, for the entirety of the clothing concealing it as well as the skin layer there had been COMPLETELY removed, exposing the flesh and bones beneath it. Heck, he could even see a faint visage of something pulsating, making him realize quickly that it had been his heart. A sinking feeling formed in his gut which caused the skin of his face to lose its colour, horror and fear filling him up inside with his gaze refusing to look away from it no matter how much his brain ordered it to.

Good thing it didn't last long then, since Tendrils rippled over his back and Alex saw his back begin to repair itself. It formed new skin after mending what areas got damaged by the crash, bones becoming good as new and any holes in his flesh closing up, blood receding back into him. Tendrils rippled over him as the clothing soon restored itself too, making the teenager whistle to himself. "Wow, guess I don't have to worry about spoiling my clothes, then…" the male stated, a slight smirk on his lips despite the terror that gripped him like a vice. "Lady Noire would be SO jealous…"

"You know ANY woman would be jealous of that trait, greenhorn."

Once again, Alex heard the same masculine voice from before his impromptu 'ejection' out of the City, causing his gaze to harden into a steely expression whilst he turned to the source, finding the owner of the voice having landed about 20 meters away from him. The moment that the owner had done so, an… impressively large crater had been formed beneath said owner, though it didn't look like he suffered any injuries from the motion as he got up and stood tall before Alex, a sickening smile fully equipped. This allowed Alex to get a good look at the person at long last, to which the male took the opportunity presented to him.

The first thing which came into his mind when looking at this person, well, was that he was a tall man… like, a VERY tall man, much taller than any of the professional Neplympic athletes Alex had heard about in passing. He stood at about 8 foot according to his estimation, with a rather broad build like one which one could see in a professional bodybuilder that only added to his rather… intimidating appearances. Like he'd mentioned before, Alex had seen his fair share of tall dudes, but this guy EASILY dwarfed them all. Aside from that, the dude had short, yet wild and messy dark brown hair with some deep dark blue eyes, eyes which reminded him of Vert's… though in colour only.

Hers looked way prettier.

In terms of attire, his outfit looked to be more on the… well, practical side of travelling, if a little worn in some places. He wore a simple dark green leather tunic, one which had various holes around the shoulder areas to expose the muscular arms the guy had, not to mention that they had some tears shaped like X's through its abdomen region, messy looking ones too. On his legs, he wore some matching leather pants which looked to have been shredded just as easily as his tunic on one leg, and brown worn-looking boots, with his forearms and hands covered by metallic damaged gauntlets. All in all, he looked rather like a wild beast which had just escaped a risky confrontation with another predator, much more so than a normal man…

'No… for some reason, I'm getting the feeling…'

The moment that Alex mentally compared this guy to a beast, the male got struck with the sensation that he was doing a disservice... to the 'beast' that is. It felt as though however bad that the most bloodthirsty of creatures were, they would not hold a CANDLE to this guy, though Alex wasn't sure why he felt this way, but he did and he didn't like it, thus he pulled his guard up by getting into a defensive stance in case of another attack like earlier. For better reference, the male's defensive stance involved putting his right arm in front of his face below his eye level, horizontally, his left thrown to the side. His right leg was placed behind his left, with Tendrils rippling over his body, irritation and wild frenzy emitting from their movements which actually caused a significant portion of surprise to well up inside him. Looked like whatever he had also shared his caution regarding this guy, then…

'Guh!'

Just as he made to move though, the man suddenly stepped forwards… and in that moment, Alex nearly let out a squawk of fright when he had to jump back to avoid a right roundhouse kick which cut through the air like a literal blade, the male swearing in his mind that he had seen something metallic for a brief moment there.

'What the hell was that?!' the teen cried to himself in the middle of his motions through the air, all the while his mind raced as he mentaly replayed the experience over and over. His heart thumped wildly and erratically within the confines of his ribcage, adrenaline rushing through his veins like screaming girls fleeing from some kind of serial killer. 'I couldn't even see him move! If I hadn't just went with my gut and bent backwards when I had, I don't know why but I feel as though that kicked would have sliced me in two at the waist!' Immediately after this realization, Alex's body rippled with Tendrils as the classification 'dangerous enemy' entered it, along with a picture of the man imprinting itself onto it as if it were taking those two words as a single label.

Flipping back a few times, the male slid to a halt and raised his head to notice the man having already closed the distance between them, striking forth by throwing his right arm towards Alex's face with his hand in the blade position. Kind of like he was performing a knifehand strike now that the teen thought about it, but that thought vanished in the next millisecond when the teen slammed both palms onto the man's arm from both the left and right sides, halting the movement just in time to stop it from impaling him in the face. 'Th-This strength…!' The teen thought in a strained manner as his arms trembled visibly and madly in their attempt to keep the invading limb from completing its journey. Only a slight more and it would have just impaled him with the force that it had generated earlier. 'So not only is this guy fast, but strong as all hell too!'

"Hmmmm… looks like what I felt before was on the mark, then…" the man then spoke, making Alex direct his attention to him whilst gritting his teeth at the effort he had to put in stopping the man's attack. All the while, the man himself held this nonchalant expression, almost as if to say something along the lines of 'So this is what had happened, eh?'. "If I were to guess, it's not been that long since you have ascended, give or take a few weeks. You're not as powerful as I had expected, though I guess that it's to be expected for someone who looks like he's got no idea what's happening."

Upon hearing those words, Alex's eyes widened in shock and confusion, yet he maintained his hold on the man's arm… though he wasn't sure if that was needed at this point since it didn't look like the man planned to attack him further than this. 'This guy… what the heck's he on? He looks like he's trying to be smart or something, like some cliche mystery villain who turns out to be the main antagonist at the end of the series.' The teen thought whilst resisting the urge to roll his eyes, anything to stop this guy from getting annoyed and then finishing off his strike.

If one were to ask him, then Alex wouldn't admit it outright but right now it took everything that he had to just keep this guy in one place, and even then he got the feeling that he wasn;t even putting his full oomph into it. However, that thought soon became moot when he suddenly thought of something. 'Hold on a minute… now that I think about it, this guy got a look at my Tendrils when they rippled earlier, and yet he showed no reaction. It doesn't look like he wears contacts now that I'm close enough to check so his sight isn't too bad, meaning that he DEFINITELY saw them… combine that with his words, and it could potentially mean…' In the end, the male decided to go for broke and opened his mouth to speak. "Let me guess… you know what I am, right?" he questioned.

"Oh? To be still able to speak despite me holding you like this… I see, so you only have this much power at your current state, and since you haven't been searching out infected to consume, you're still like this..." The man commented, which pretty much confirmed to Alex that he indeed knew about the thing flowing through his veins even if the man HADN'T continued. "I guess I'll give you this one, as a reward for being 'somewhat' possible… but yeah, I do."

"In that case, then-!"

"Ah-ah-ah, that's the last of the freebies you get from me, greenhorn."

THWAP!

"Gah!"

With the confirmation he'd gotten, Alex tried to say something else like a demand to know what it is that he had become, a question he had been debating this entire night. However, the previous answer seemed to be the extent of the courtesy that the man seemed willing to extend… for something lashed out from behind the guy and whacked Alex in the side of his head, the thing being somewhat blunt like a hammer or something as it sent him flying away instead of outright decapitating him.

Bouncing along the ground, Alex did this up to 5 times, ending up having a second flight which had taken him across over 100 meters worth of ground. More than once the male spat out some sort of black gooey liquid as if that were his blood though, something which the male would have frowned at if he weren't in his current situation, so he idly chose to note it down in his mind instead. By the time that he hit the ground for the last time he had to tumble across it until he finally halted himself, scrambling back to his feet in order to get ready for any more incoming attacks. Good thing he did, for the man jumped across the space in a single leap, clearing the distance in a matter of seconds as he flipped forwards to bring his left leg's heel down on him in an overhead heel slam.

Alex barely got out the way in time by rolling to the side though, although he didn't manage to evade the attack completely which he soon realized, much to his own internal frustration. The reason for this, one might ask? Whelp, upon the heel's impact with the ground, the surrounding space up to 10 meters lifted itself upwards to form some sort of damaged circle, the pieces that rose upwards having launched Alex right back towards his enemy as if they were reflecting him back to where he'd come from. Barely managing to regain his wits about him whilst in mid flight, Alex shifted himself in mid-air and made it so that he had leapt towards his foe instead, rearing his right arm backwards in order to shift it into his Pincer.

"Hah!"

With that one war cry, Alex launched a slash with the weapon when he had gotten close enough, the man not giving it much thought however and instead just catching it in his right hand. This caused the black haired male's lips to twist into an infuriated scowl as he tried to move the mutated limb, although this turned out to be futile as the man's grip held him steady in the air. He would have just fallen to the ground with the laws of gravity catching up to him, had the man not decided to give him and the ground an early meeting by raising him upwards and then slamming him down on it as if Alex himself were a fly swatter and the ground containing said insect.

A loud sound escaped the male's mouth, a sound of pain, of shock, anger, frustration the male wasn't too sure. Not when his mind had became a jogled mess thanks to the force put behind that attack. His stomach churned as a white heart sensation rushed through his front, igniting him inside and making him feel as though he had fallen face first into a pit of lava. Yet, the teen didn't let this keep him down as he looked upwards, glaring through his right eye (as the left one had closed itself due to his injured state) towards the man still currently holding his Pincer. As he felt his injuries begin to kick in, the male quickly analyzed his situation in that one moment, coming up with a conclusion and a new offensive plan.

Up till this point, it became clear to the male just how outmatched he was against this guy. The short exchanges they had taught him that this guy had been holding back this entire time, his eyes telling the teen that his opponent had merely been playing around with him till now, though how long that would be until the man grew bored and decided to end things couldn't be determined. In this situation, Alex had only one chance here, and that would be to distract him long enough for him to get the fuck out of here, and there was only ONE way for him to do so.

A way he intended to exploit right now.

"Hmph. Guess it's time to stop playing around. You'll not be very much of an appetiser unlike those Goddesses, but you should suffice for a little 'jolt' at least."

"Okay, yeah that's all well and good and all, but one question. Are you hungry?"

"Hm?"

"Cause I want you to EAT THIS!"

With those words declared like a general motivating his troops before the battle started, Alex howled as he shifted his arm into Pincer form, held it up against his foe whose eyes widened when he saw it having switched to Rifle Mode as evident by the barrel pointed towards his face. Before he could react in time however, Alex quickly let loose a single bullet into him, the bullet slammed into the man's face with immense, unrelenting force and practically reducing his head to a messy blackish mush. He didn't even have time to scream, but Alex didn't stop there, for he shot off the guy's legs with two more shots, switched the Pincer back into its default mode, and hacked off the guy's arms all in a couple of seconds. He quickly grabbed all four limbs into his now human arms, consumed them, and pumped the amassed energy into his legs in order to make a mad dash away from the scene, practically launching the torso of his enemy flying with the ground caving in on itself as a side effect of Alex's abrupt movement.

Unable to give chase, all the torso could do was be the platform for the immediate repairs. Tendrils rippled over the various stumps as various forms of matter shot out, the Tendrils acting like machinery in a hospital by aiding in constructing it into the limbs that they had once been, landing on the hard, unforgiving ground soon after the process started. The man didn't have the capacity to think or express whatever he felt at the moment due to his body rapidly proceeding to regenerate itself, although it took a lot of energy from him to do so due to the extent of his injuries. He hadn't the sensory abilities needed to track the boy down either, since he'd only done so earlier by following him from a distance, something he would have to rectify in the future.

Still, this wouldn't be the end, not by a long shot.

* * *

...Phew, his encounter couldn't have gotten any worse for it and its host, Blacklight decided.

With how it had suddenly encountered an apex predator so soon, part of it had feared the worse would have happened. To say that it hadn't expected this to happen would be somewhat of a lie as well as a truth at the same time, something which it didn't know exactly how or why it had been so sure of before, all it could recall from the past was just simple blurs at this point no doubt due to the passage of time. However, it still knew this deep within its core, and as such it didn't panic NEARLY as much as it would have otherwise.

Furthermore, thanks to its host fighting that apex predator Blacklight deduced to itself that this predator far outstripped them in terms of evolutionary prowess, combat experience as well as overall ability, it could tell this by examining the DNA of those limbs that its host had managed to liberate then consume to make his quick retreat. It was only a shame that the DNA within them, DNA which could have been useful in developing a MAJOR overhaul of its hosts' abilities, had been locked up tight within itself and, before it could try to 'crack open the vault' sort to say, the DNA inside disintegrated leaving nothing but Biomass. As such, Blacklight felt both frustrated at this missed opportunity, but also relieved at the same time, mostly due to the fact that this Biomass would be burned up from its' hosts current action so it wouldn't be reminded of this disappointment forever.

Still this encounter taught it a valuable lesson, or perhaps a lesson that it had already known but just needed a good kick up the backside to remind it of: that it was not the only Apex Predator out there, and that if it didn't shape the fuck up, it would not be living long and would be forced to spend eternity as part of some other strain it didn't approve of. THAT caused it to bristle inside, rage bubbling within like water boiling inside a heated kettle. That would not happen, that could NOT be allowed to happen, no matter what! It treasured its individuality, it treasured its existence! Anything which dared try to compromise this would be met with swift, brutal and MERCILESS force!

With this motivation in mind, Blacklight begun to work overtime, forming new strains within itself based off the external stimuli that it had encountered these last few moments.

First thing's first, it would seem that some sensory abilities would be required, something which they could use to keep track of EVERYTHING in their immediate vicinity so that they would be able to react to even the SLIGHTEST danger. Even though its memories of the past were a blur, it once recalled a time where it managed to adapt to a space filled with intense gravity, about 10g's of gravitational force, until it could move like the force didn't even exist. The same would have to happen here. Odds were that whatever it could create would be flawed until it got samples of a stronger stimuli, but that would come with time, it predicted.

Then, it would need to develop some sort of offense and defensive measures, with the way that mitosis worked in the human body it could promote the growth of stronger cells to replace what had been destroyed in that battle, something which had happened with restoring the host's back. It would have to apply those strengthened cells over every body portion (disabling the host's immune system so that he didn't feel any discomfort, as discomfort resembled vulnerability to it, something Blacklight despised), disposing of the weaker variants by converting them into Biomass. Defense aside, the best way it could obtain samples for offense abilities would be to go out there and consume wildlife, strong samples too. It could tell that those things called 'Dogoo', the 'horsebird' and that dog monster weren't nearly as effective as it would have liked, hence why it had only stored the DNA away instead of used them for more upgrades. An oversight on its part due to its own pride... something which it must fix lest it became its downfall.

Thirdly, it needed information, information about who that man was and what kind of powers he possessed. That man obviously had been one of its kind, but Blacklight identified him by his gender for better distinguishing purposes, something which it had learned through observing the daily routines of its host. This one would likely end up the hardest for it since none of those humans it 'guided' its host into Consuming had much in the way of info about him, however that didn't mean to say that they would be useless. Blacklight had seen an opportunity when they had appeared, and if there was ANYTHING to take to heart about it that would be its trait of always taking its chances. It didn't necessarily 'need' to consume them, however doing so brought home the fact that it wasn't like the other humans to the host, something which Blacklight felt would be necessary for his growth in the future. Now that he was aware, Blacklight sensed comprehension and thoughtfulness in the midst of all the self-deprecation and internal loathing, which implied that he would soon start developing on his own as well.

Good.

This didn't mean it could slack off though, quite the opposite. In essence, a real thorough re-evaluation would be in order for the time being... something which it felt would take the entire night, but in the end it would be a necessary annoyance.

It'd promote chances of survival after all.

* * *

By the time that Alex stopped running, he found himself slowing into a steady jog when coming up to the main gate. Looked like things had been restored there, so after quickly verifying his identification, the Guards there allowed him entry back into the city. Fortunately for him, whatever had happened to cause him to... well, Consume those people earlier didn't happen to those guys, that could have become REAL bad. However, the male couldn't really find I himself to care as much as he had before about all that right now, instead all he cared about were the events that had transpired.

That man...

He may not have shown much of it, but Alex could tell just from how he talked and acted.

That guy... he had either strong experiences with these abilities, or he had the same ones that Alex himself had.

This revelation did NOT bode well with him, not one bit. It actually made Alex tremble with anxiety, a cold sweat travelling down the side of his head. Someone out there had the VERY SAME powers that he did, the powers which he himself had started to comprehend their true, malicious and insidious nature... that could NOT be anything good, in fact it could be said that had been one of the teen's budding fears back when he had his little emo phase earlier. Worse, was that those fears had come to life, and judging by the language the guy used he had ZERO qualm with using them to achieve his own ends. Alex bet that if things had dragged on, he could have very well ended up with the same fate as those creatures that he had consumed himself to help Noire out. Yet, he had next to NOTHING about this person, whom he was originally, where he had come from and what his intentions were... well, that last one wasn't so accurate, since Alex himself figured out from their scuffle that the guy potentially knocked him out of Lastation in order to 'judge' him, similar to a food critic with their said food.

Whether or not he 'passed' would be up in the air, but Alex felt it safe to assume that he now had a target on his back, either out of humiliation, anger or the original intent wasn't known to him but that didn't matter. The fact that he had someone hunting him down now, was.

But what to do about it?

'I have to tell Noire about this... but considering the time of day it is, perhaps I should wait till tomorrow morning? No, I have to risk it tonight since tomorrow we'll likely have little time to ourselves, and if I don't tell her now I don't know when I could get the same chance again.' the male thought whilst contemplating on whether or not he should try to find Noire. However, in the end he decided to go for broke and risk it, with what he had learned tonight it would be considered stupid of him NOT to tell her about it as soon as he possibly could. Plus, considering Noire's work ethic, at this time of day he didn't doubt she would be awake.

Hence, his conclusion which lead to the following action of him proceeding to track the blackette down.

To that end, Alex proceeded to head off towards the first place he'd thought to look: the Basilicom where Noire stayed with her faithful. That was the place which she seemed to spend the most time there, and whilst he didn't have much enthusiasm about asking others for directions to her, he'd do it if he had no other choice.

Alex didn't want to risk another blackout, after all.

* * *

With his currently enhanced speed and agility, it didn't take him long to reach the Basilicom, nor did it take him very long to figure out where Noire had been located since he'd overheard a couple Basilicom workers comment on how their CPU had much more work than usual to do after the attack on her city, thus she had retired to her bedroom to rest earlier than her usual hours. In the end, Alex didn't need to ask for directions to her bedroom due to having analysed the Basilicom's layout beforehand, hence he managed to locate her bedroom entrance pretty quickly.

Part of him questioned the rather... ethical nature of his actions as he approached Noire's bedroom door at this hour, especially since his sister had told him many times when they were younger that girls tend to like their beauty sleep which they use to help them look good during the day. Furthermore, if he got accused of barging into her room uninvited at this hour... Alex wasn't sure he could really refute this logic, so he intended to announce his presence first. That cliché trope of barging into a girl's room without knocking in anime and manga always DID annoy him frankly.

Once he stood by the door, Alex spent a moment to gather his bearings, taking a deep breath and then exhaling it as he took it all in. The door stood at about 6 feet height with enough of a width to allow a single person through, just like any typical door, sporting some maroon brown colouring over it as well as greyish coloured frames outlining it. At the door's centre a nametag attached itself to the door's centre, as if it were welded there as it sported the following:

'Lady Black Heart Personal Chambers - keep out!'

'Heh, that sounds... actually kinda childish, reminds me of the things my little sis would write like an animal staking its dominion over a certain territory it wanted...' Alex thought as a flash of amusement rushed through his system. Though, that soon got followed by a sense of pain, nostalgia and worry, all for their own reasons. However, instead of wallowing on them and looking like a complete retard in front of another person's room (he'd never hear the end of it from his sister otherwise), Alex forcibly pushed them aside and reached for the door. His hand clenched itself into a fist and, after one more breath exhale, Alex proceeded to repeatedly tap his knuckles onto the door's material.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!

"Um, Hello? Lady Noire, are you awake?"

"... Yeah, been awake for a while now. What do you want? You SHOULD be outside patrolling still."

Mentally, Alex exhaled in deep relief, knowing that his boss was still awake even at this hour. If one were to ask him, then he'd say she likely had just went to her quarters to take a small nap or something before resuming her work within the sanctuary of her room. That sounded MUCH like something she'd do to him, and he had only known her for a short time too. 'Well, now that I know she's awake and clearly sounds like she won't be asleep for a while, I'll brooch the subject...' he thought to himself before opening his mouth. "Its urgent Lady Noire, I've... found out some things which are only suitable for your ear. And if you want to know how urgent, think 'national' level urgent."

"... Well, what are you waiting for? Come in, already!"

Pretty soon, a hot headed response came from the door's opposite side, well it more or less sounded like a yell if one asked him, but he didn't care either way. In the end, Alex gave a verbal affirmative, before reaching for the door's handle on its left and turned it, pushing the door open to stride inside. The moment that he did so, the teen made sure to shut the door behind him before looking back to the room which housed his CPU. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't been nervous about entering a girl's room like this, after all this wasn't his mother or sister whom he'd grown up with, but his freaking BOSS. He had to be quite respectable otherwise his career may end before it could even begin.

As for the room itself, it looked rather... spacious, he figured to be the best word to describe it. The room didn't have anything particularly noteworthy, it had the necessities for comfort instead: a bed fit for a person, a rather large wardrobe (much larger than he'd ever seen before, but then again he had heard from his sister that girls liked to have lots of clothes), a dresser with a seat which Noire likely used to glam herself up for the day, even a small kitchen which housed some kitchen utilities, so basically it seemed like a pretty normal room for a young budding maiden... only, in this case said maiden actually had been around for much longer than the entirety of the current human population combined. Though he guessed this didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, age was but a number after all... Neptune herself would be enough proof.

"You said you had something urgent to tell me right, so stop looking like a dumbass and sit down already!"

Quickly growing impatient, and more than a little embarrassed/nervous, Noire who sat at the dresser clad in her usual outfit noticed the male's staring and had thus shouted out with a red face, prompting the teen to snap out of his little trance. Well, who could blame her when a guy was LITERALLY eyeing everything she owned like that? Her words did serve to snap him out of his trance as per mentioned before, so with a quick stammer of an apology, Alex took a seat in the middle of the room, all the while Noire herself stood from her dresser seat and proceeded to boil a kettle next to it... a kettle which Alex found to be more than a LITTLE convenient for some reason.

Did she want someone to come to her room or something?

His boss seemed almost eerily prepared for this kind of situation...

Rather than focus on that little oddity, the male graciously accepted the girly looking teacup presented to him by his boss when it had been properly brewed, noticing that it was black tea. As she sat opposite him with her own cup in hand, the blackette took a sip to enjoy the taste as it ran down her throat before she narrowed her eyes at her Secretary. "So then, what did you need to tell me so badly that it couldn't wait till morning?" she questioned in a mix of anger and seriousness, a tinge of pink on her cheeks. Mentally, Alex noted that this reaction must have meant that she had more than a little embarrassment about this situation they were in... something which he made not to recall for the future. 'Noire mustn't be used to this kind of thing... best not make this a habit, but right now I need to tell her what I know...'

And so, upon her prodding Alex proceeded to tell her everything that had happened to him tonight, starting from the beginning of his nightly patrols up till his return to Lastation. He refused to leave anything out either, telling her everything even the stuff that he felt... ethically conflicted about. The consumption of those civilians for one, although he did make sure to explain what had happened in as much detail as he could, with Tendrils occasionally rippling over him to express his discomfort and other unsettling emotions. Then, when he got to the part about that mysterious man it took a LOT more willpower to keep his tone steady and professional, with the memories of how he had almost gotten him killed if it hadn't been for some quick thinking on Alex's part flashing through his mind like an old-fashioned video recording.

All the while, Noire remained silent, showing nothing about what she really felt inside, something which worried the male immensely.

By the time that he had finished, Noire glanced down at her cup, finding the temperature to have dropped to a lukewarm level. Occasionally she must have sipped some since it looked to be about half empty at this point, but that became moot to her now. "I see..." she stated, putting the teacup on its matching plate (yeah, she had a full set, not just cups and a kettle). "It makes sense then why you came to me... you seem to have had a rough night..."

"So... you're not mad at me? I mean..."

"... #SIGH# as much as the CPU in me WANTS to be mad at you, I just can't do so." Noire replied after a moment of awkward silence. She wasn't wrong either as deep down she felt rather LIVID with her Secretary regarding that consumption business. However, several facts made themselves known to her which mitigated this fury to an extent. facts which she then proceeded to explain. "From what I heard, it didn't seem like you were doing it of your own free will, plus we hardly know anything about this so-called 'virus' in you if we can even call it that anymore..." Just simply calling it a Virus at this point seemed like she was underestimating this thing's power, Noire felt. From what she'd heard, the things it could do HEAVILY separated it from things like the common cold, not to mention that Lastation had a... well, HISTORY with viral epidemics in the past when they had been more of a steampunk type of land which had caused lots of pollution at the time. "Then there's that mystery character... you COULD have at least gotten his name, but I guess that him having the same powers is good enough information since it confirms a few ideas in my head, although I wish they had been merely ideas..."

Alex nodded his head, sensing that Noire had understood the very same implications that he had about their situation, in fact he dared say that out of their group only the pair of them had a better idea of just how complex these state of affairs had become. They now potentially had a whole new threat to go against them aside from Eno, add in all the Generals and the lack of proper co-ordination they had currently... yeah, this would turn out to be quite the mess, and to think that Noire had once thought everything over before everything truly went to hell. In essence, what Noire had gone through before may as well have been a tutorial level, with THIS being the first TRUE level and on the hardest difficulty possible.

One small mistake, and everything could fall apart.

"... Anyways, since learning all this has eliminated any ability to sleep for me..." Noire began after a moment of silent contemplation, all whilst aiming an accusing glare in Alex's direction which caused him to gaze at her sheepishly. "I suppose we should start considering our next move. The first thing we should address should be bolstering our own forces strength, and no I'm not just talking about your powers, I'm talking about HDD. I took a bit of time to analyse my situation and got some info from Histoire, so here's what I got..."

With that, what would soon be a whole all-nighter for the blackette took place, being completely about their plans for their next plays in this new conflict, this NEW Console War.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 **

Utter exhaustion absolutely KILLED her body right now, as Neptune slumped down onto the ground like a useless sack of garbage which had been left on the wayside, her forehead littered with sweat as her body ached in places she didn't even realize were possible until today. "Ugh… Haah… haaah… haah… so… so… so tired… need… need rest… food… pudding…" she tried to say, only her hoarse voice didn't really allow for her to speak in coherent, competent and fully structured sentences like she normally could do. She remained in the seated position with her hands behind her and placed on the ground so she could lean on them for support, putting more weight onto her shoulders all the while. Her legs could be considered to be shaped like an arrowhead at this point, or at least a more spread version of the japanese seiza position though in the end, it didn't change the fact that she SO wanted to have a bath and take a nap.

It didn't help that various parts of her body had various heavy shackles strapped to them… training shackles which weighed multiple hundred kilos to be more precise. She couldn't even be bothered to comment on the training attire that she currently supported, which was a simple large shirt and some purple gym shorts with some whte and purple sneakers.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on the circumstances and the perspective of the one asked, Neptune wasn't the only one experiencing these unfortunate circumstances. The reason? Simple, for Vert and Blanc had been placed in similar situations though their 'training equipment' varied between one another. For Vert who leaned against a tree for support whilst looking similar to Neptune in terms of being exhausted and sweaty, she had a full on corset harness strapped to her torso, weighing 150 kilos in total whilst her thighs, shins and forearms also had shackles onto them, making the current weight she had been carrying a grand total of 230 Kilos. "This is… quite the... gruelling training regimen… indeed…" the woman breathed whilst she heaved her backside off, the rapid rising and falling of her chest as well as the sweat staining her current clothes: a simple dark green and black tracksuit with light green trainers making for one tantilising image. Her hair had been done up into a bun as well, exposing more of her back and her neck that the blonde woman felt herself comfortable with. "Yet… with the reasoning that Noire provided… there really was little… option otherwise…"

"Boo… you say that… Verty poo… but you just… wanted to wear… a tracksuit for once… right?"

"Shut it, you two…"

Dressed in a similar getup to Neptune but with dark blue bloomers instead and a white headband with the kanji for 'training' atop her forehead, a lightly sweating Blanc jogged up to them and stopped in one spot, although she made sure to keep moving her legs resulting in her looking like she was running on the spot, her arms held in a right angle position on either of her sides. The brunette looked the least weary out of the trio, something which internally she took a not so small amount of pride in as she regarded them with a look of not so small smugness. "You two need to exercise more, if THIS is what defeats you. Neptune I can get since she's a lazy ass who hardly does a thing for her Nation. Thunder Tits must be in a pretty big disadvantage huh?"

"Hey!" Neptune began to retort against her being a lazy CPU even though she couldn't really say much about it, she ended up getting tossed aside when Vert jolted up in a heated manner, her weary state making it so that she held little amounts of the usual calmness and composure she possessed.

Proof of this followed her previous actions. "I think I've been doing fine so far with my treasures, thank you very much." the blonde woman declared, only to grit her teeth angrily when Blanc just looked away from her and made the 'whatever' motion knowing that she couldn't do much right now due to her body being so weary.

SMACK!

The trio of girls then flinched when the audible sound of a wooden training sword smacked against the ground near them, reminding the girls of the times whenever Histoire snapped… although compared to her this felt mild in comparison. The cause ended up being Noire herself. "You lot!" Said girl yelled like a Drill Sergeant as she stood on top of a constantly jogging Alex, her feet perfectly balanced on his shoulders as she stood clad in a black and grey version of the same Track suit that Vert herself wore. The Sword she wielded right then had been one which Alex had helped her attached to a long metal pipe, somewhat resembling a sword staff which she used to get the girls attention. "Quit squabbling like a bunch of whiny weebs about their favourite anime waifus and get moving! We're burning precious daylight, I won;t be responsible if you end up getting torn to shreds by unforgiving monsters like a Bunch of lame ass useless whiny bitches!" she declared.

"Nepu!"

"Loser of Planeptune! DID I HEAR SOME LIP?! WANT ME TO EXPAND THE TRAINING ANOTHER THOUSAND LAPS WITH NO PUDDING?!"

"ZOINKS! NO MA'AM!"

"Grrrr…!"

"My, Noire's really being a stick in the mud with this…. I know that she has some good points, but…"

As one could assume, as fellow Leaders themselves, each of the ladies felt indignant about being ordered around like common house servants, although considering that Noire had won their bout fair and square there wasn't much they could do about the situation. The following weeks could have been considered to be hell on Gamarket…. At least, that's how the three CPUs would have put it if anyone had bothered to ask them.

From the day after the attack on SONY, it appeared that Noire had practically transformed overnight, quickly throwing them into this training regimen designed to enhance their combat effectiveness. It consisted of various exercises and weapon usage drills, where they were forced to train in various weapon styles, techniques and skills as, in her eyes, the more versatile their skillsets the more they could be considered competent in the Party. At first, and up till now even, it felt more like Noire had turned into a downright slave driver/ tyrant towards them, one which Histoire tried to have a word with only for Alex to take her away and when they came back Histoire had seemingly been converted to their side. Thus, this training regimen had the Tome Fairy's approval on it (much to Neptune's horror).

It didn't help that Noire also wanted to 'correct' some of their behaviour, mostly Neptune's lazy attitude so things for her were WAY tougher on her than the rest of them… something which the other two CPUs didn't show very much apprehension towards Neptune's indignant anger.

She got the feeling that she was being singled out WAY more than the canon version of this spin-off…

Whelp, Neptune wasn't quite wrong in that regard.

Though, there was another reason for this training, one which Noire only informed Histoire about, whilst Alex had been there during said talk. The REAL reason for this training, as Noire had explained, was to help them get used to their newfound 'limits'. According to her, Noire had felt back in that battle in SONY that her body's limits had been fucked beyond belief, she had been so used to a constant supply of power that she had been psychologically thinking that she was STILL receiving that support, hence she sometimes overreached herself a few times in battle which could have gotten her killed, had it not been for some timely intervention from her Secretary.

If Noire had been effected to this extent, then it stood to reason that the other CPUs had been affected the same way, since they were also made from Share Energy, which the Training soon revealed to be the case. Thus, Noire's true goal was to help them regain control and adjust their bodies to their new limits, at least until they could restore their individual HDD Forms. That was something which Noire was looking into herself, since one time she had asked her Secretary if he could put his faith in them to see if that could help things, only for that attempt to fail epically. Histoire had been quick to explain that because Alex didn't truly 'believe' in the other CPUs unlike with Noire, likely due to his first impressions of them, of which Vert had the second strongest with Blanc being third and Neptune being last, his 'faith' wasn't properly being transferred to them. Either the three were to show him that they truly COULD be considered CPUs in order to change his mind, or they could return to their own Nations and gather faith from their Citizens… which would take way longer than necessary due to their own Sharicite Crystals not working well like Noire's.

'Things have been coming along nicely, it seems…" Alex thought to himself as a light shift on Noire's footing told him to resume moving forwards, something which he adhered to since the other CPUs were forced to jog onwards thanks to Noire's beratings. Sometimes he DID think that they were being a bit excessive, but if he were honest whenever he thought about that he got flashbacks to that guy who'd attacked him that night multiple weeks ago, how easily he utterly WRECKED his ass. If things hadn't gone the way they had, then Alex didn't doubt that he would have died at that point. Thus, he had kept his complaints within his own mind and only acted as the current moving platform for his boss. One of the things about his current body was that it had seemingly no end to its stamina, meaning that he could do QUITE a number of daily tasks as Noire's secretary. He had stumbled a few times in the first week or two, but by this point he had finally started to settle into the routine Noire had drafted for him, plus he had been exempt from this training thanks to Noire having seen how his body was still… changing, as it were.

Boy, he just HAD to ponder on THAT can of worms, now didn't he? Well, what he had meant by that was that it was still changing, or rather instead of just changing, one could instead say it kept on… evolving, at a rapid scale too. His body currently behaved like a hyperactive child on a sugar rush in regards to his changes, and whilst none of these changes seemed to have manifested themselves completely, according to his self analysis it did seem that this was a prelude to… something. What that was, he didn't know himself and, as scary sounding as that may have been, he couldn't help but feel it as a result of fighting against that mystery man. It felt like… like whatever lay within him had gained a MAJOR wakeup call in that there were others like it in Gamarket and that if it didn't kick its ass into high gear, then it likely won't be able to live for very long.

As he ran, Alex closed his eyes as a contemplative hum escaped his lips, although it had such a low volume that Noire (whom had busied herself whipping Neptune's backside whenever she slowed down), didn't notice. If that theory proved itself true, then the male could wholeheartedly agree with it and even understand it to an extent. Every life form wanted to live as long as possible, it was almost an ingrained desire within all forms of life exist. To them, death was considered to be the end of the road, an eternally black abyss where they would vanish, where their stories would conclude without the chance for a sequel.

Aside from that, there was one other thing which changed his lifestyle,that being something which he had kept to himself… well, he would have done so, however Noire had been present at the time, but they had sworn to keep it to themselves like anything else concerning the male's powers.

**(Flashback)**

"**So… this is the place where you were attacked?"**

**Noire herself asked this as she and Alex stood, side by side, at the street which the male had first encountered that scorpion monster. It hadn't been too long since the repairs had gone underway, but this place had been deemed the lowest of priorities compared to other facilities. Though, if one asked him then Alex would have stated that he preferred this option since he had wanted to show Noire what he had gone through before meeting her. Speaking of said CPU, the blackette scanned the surroundings of what had been reportedly an intense battle between Alex and a massive scorpion monster… and she could see why that was so. **

**All across the street, she could see signs of an immense struggle. One of the stores looked like a cave had collapsed on top of it with all the rubble that piled up over it, with countless craters, boulders and dirt having been tossed about everywhere. One big dirt pile had been all that remained of the once fully functional workplace, a result of the store's underground support having been absolutely WRECKED from the attacker's surprise ambush. There were these long, LONG scrapes across the ground too where she could guess pincers had formed from swinging themselves. Combined together with Alex's testimony in her mind, and Noire got herself a QUITE significant picture of what had happened… though, she did not like what she concluded on, not one bit. "Well… I can definitely see why you were so concerned with this thing…" she commented dryly as her eyes scanned through the desolated area with her fists clenched beside her hips, her teeth gnashed together as a light bead of sweat rolled down her forehead. "If something like this managed to do THIS much damage once, its going to be likely that it'll return…"**

"**Yeah…" Alex nodded in response, not liking that thought any more than his boss did. However, it had been something which the male did not want to overlook either just because of something as minor as sentimentality, ESPECIALLY since innocent lives could potentially be put in danger because of him. After all, its not just Humanity that can plot conscious revenge on those who hurt them, since an anthropologist stated something the teen had read online about the subject. He'd gone on to talk about how the Animal Kingdom has the behaviour of returning injuries for injuries, commenting on the lack of 'blue feet' that Animals have. There were multiple cases of animals being called 'Punishers', animals which respond to injuries by attacking the culprit who injured them. In this case, Alex felt willing to bet that this creature could be considered a similar type of Animal, and if that was absolutely the case… who knows when it could strike him again? **

**So… would it be better for everyone if…**

**If he weren't here?**

**That thought entered his mind, and ever since it refused to leave him no matter how hard he tried to not think about it. It felt like that abusive ex partner one kept coming back to, a toxic poison that one became addicted to over time. Not to mention that the more seconds that passed, the more the worry in his gut blossomed into a flower of gut-wrenching anxiety, doubt and sadness. It didn't help that the destruction caused by their scuffle just kept egging him on down this path, since it reminded him of the very REAL threat that this city could very well have to suffer multiple times before Alex could put it down… and even then, even if he got rid of the creature there was still whoever sent it to the City in the first place. Furthermore, he may have repelled it once already, but that creature had demonstrated some intelligence during their bout so what if it were to attack when there was a large civilian populace in the vicinity? He doubted that it would care about collateral damage, heck it would probably see them as just food. Thoughts like these flooded the teen's mind, making him realize the very REAL danger that his very PRESENCE put the city in, just simply by remaining within the city. **

**He had to inform Noire of this development, so she could let him be isolated somewhere away from any innocent bystander's home. Thus, his lips started moving and words started coming out before his mind could properly process them.**

"**You… sure I should stay-?"**

"**Oi."**

**BONK!**

"**Guh!"**

**Much to Alex's surprise, Noire bonked him on the head with her right fist since she stood at his left, leaving a rather cartoonish looking lump on his head. One which didn't last long though, but even then the impact of it left phantom pains on the male. The cause, Noire's fist, still trembled slightly with a thin trail of smoke rising up from it whilst the blackette aimed a glare in his direction. "Never say stupid stuff like that again, you here? Don't doubt my ability to protect you, should that thing come again I'll help you deal with it. I'm a Goddess, if I can't save one person whose hurting then I can't proclaim myself as such. Also, what was it that you told me before? Then i'll say those same words right back at you." she declared, putting both her hands on her hips as she tilted her upper body forwards at him slightly. She had every right to be angry at what he had said as well, undermining his own worth for the sake of her people, it wasn't something Noire condoned or would EVER condone in her presence. She could tell what he had been thinking too just by looking at his body language, and as someone whom had saved her before it utterly pissed her off that he would think that she would sacrifice him like that. "'In this world there isn't anything like KOs like in fighting matches. The one who gets beat down isn't the loser. The one who can't tough it out to the end, they're the ones who lose.'"**

**Hearing her say those words right back at him, pretty much reflecting what he had told her way back when she had been in her sulky mood after returning to Lastation's Capital with her powers sucked dry by that Share Crystal, Alex stared at her in surprise, no, gobsmacked was a better word to describe his emotional state right now. He didn't expect that she would use his own words against him like this, not this soon either, furthermore with the sheer confidence that she spoke them the male couldn't help but feel like he had been placed in her shoes at that moment in the past, and she had become where he had stood. A real role reversal… that thought sent a wave of amusement through his body, causing Alex to sigh in relief as a small chuckle followed suit, one which felt WAY more cathartic than it should have. "Heh, I guess so… I bet that you felt PARTICULARLY happy about firing those words back at me so soon, huh?"**

"**Oh, I'm VERY happy about that, you have no idea." Noire replied with a smirk which perfectly reflected the giddy pride that she felt inside at this conclusion. In her mind, the whole thing with this creature apparently having a fixation on her secretary wasn't something that a change of environment could fix. Sure it could limit the potential collateral casualties that it could cause, and as a Goddess she DID have to protect her People from this threat. However, to sacrifice the happiness of one of her citizens did NOT sit well with her, plus in Noire's eyes she didn't think it would really matter in the end. Should Alex fall to that creature it would be claiming even more lives afterwards, so if one asked her then she would keep Alex within close distance, so that once the creature returns then she could help him take it out PERMANENTLY this time, only THEN would both of them feel more at ease with the situation. "Anyways, shall we head back? We've still got lots to do if we want to repair the city." she suggested.**

**A small smile formed on Alex's lips as he gave her a two fingered salute. "Yes, ma'am!" he declared, about to turn and follow her out of the area… when something caught his eye which resulted in said bodypart going slightly wider in surprise. "Huh, well I'll be damned…"**

"**Huh? What is it?" **

**Upon hearing his words, Noire paused her stride in order to turn and face her Secretary, tilting her head in his direction with multiple question marks over her head. However, her question remained unanswered, slightly irritating her, as Alex strode over to something and kneeled beside something. When the blackette managed to see what it was after walking over to his side, she honestly stared blankly towards it:**

**A stop sign… a very damaged stop sign. The Sign's top portion, the 'sign' portion, looked the most damaged out of the whole apparatus, becoming shrivelled up like a rolled up piece of foil. The shaft itself also seemed to be bent in the centre, although compared to the main part it didn't look as badly affected. Made sense when one thought about it, since Alex WAS striking against something particularly difficult to slash pretty hard himself, not to mention back then he had absolutely ZERO ides of what strength he was really applying onto the metal.**

**Still, Alex couldn't help the feeling of encountering an old war buddy when he saw this Sign, prompting his previous words. **

**Of course, his boss on the other hand wasn't anywhere NEAR as nostalgic, or amused, as him. **

"**... I assume this thing was the makeshift 'weapon' that you fought off that monster with?" Noire questioned after a moment of silence, having stared blankly at the destroyed piece of her City before shifting her gaze over to the male. Said male simply nodded, a wide smile on his face as he picked up the remains of said weapon. Memories of the battle flowed through his mind once again, only this time they carried a… they carried a different sensation. One which the mae could onl;y describe as a fond nostalgia, as he gazed down at the damaged piece of metal in his two hands.**

**Remembering that his boss had asked him a question, Alex responded without looking at her. "Yeah, it was honestly a quick second decision, but I don't doubt that this baby helped me in a tough situation. You know how there are people who have these wacky weapons like Syringes, beyblades, yoyos etc? Well, I've only heard rumours so I don't have anything concrete, but wielding a stop sign kind of felt… well, empowering in a way. Like for example if I saw someone harassing another, I could have just slammed this baby onto them, the image actually makes me want to chuckle…" Alex explained, a slight laugh escaping his lips at the thought of him kicking ass with a literal stop sign. Shame that he wouldn't be able to do that with this baby hough, since it had been damaged to such a degree, not to mention he doubted that A: his boss would approve given the look she directed at him currently, and B: This thing looked too badly damaged to be of much more use…**

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"**...?!"**

"**Eh?!"**

**After a short moment of silence, something began to happen which caught both Alex AND Noire by surprise, as evident by their stunned expressions. In his hands, two cuts appeared over the males' palms, no it felt more like his palms LITERALLY split themselves apart like the opening of a mouth or a pincer. From these cuts, several STREAMS of a long, thin liquid-like black and yellow substance shot out, quickly latching onto the stop sign's Pole section, before then proceeding to quickly spread along it like when a stream of water coats an object beneath it. Although, in this case, the process seemed like it was almost happening quicker than that, something which left the two onlookers rather… mystified as they beheld the sight. However, the REAL kicker happened when the streams covered the pole and reached the top portion, quickly covering the object's 'sign' portion and proceeding to… squish it. Not only that, but it seemed to be elongating and reshaping the entire structure, almost like it were a sculptor trying to mould the clay into the shape of a pot. **

**This process had occurred far too quickly for any deeper analysis, not to mention most of what really happened got covered up by the substance, but the indication that is had been completed came when the palms closed their holes and the top portion to reveal itself, the excess substance receding back down the pole section into said holes just before they could close. What it left behind… **

**Was what could only be considered a weapon… **

**A Scythe, or rather a War Scythe as the male soon realized it.**

**The War Scythe, a form of pole weapon with a curved single-edged blade with the cutting edge on the concave side of the blade. This weapon's blade bore some superficial resemblance to that of an agricultural scythe from which it likely evolved, back during Leanbox's infancy. That Nation had a past where it lacked any of the technological marvels that it did today, opting more for a medieval style culture and era, with castles, fortresses and the like. However, thanks to the ongoing Console War with Planeptune, Lastation and Lowee at the time, they'd been forced to quickly develop their various technologies, resulting in the Leanbox that is currently seen today. **

**Back to the weapon, the war scythe was otherwise unrelated to the agricultural tool it came from, and had a more combat-orientated purpose to its name. The blade of a war scythe had regularly proportioned flats, a thickness comparable to that of a spear or sword blade, and slightly curves along its edge as it tapers to its point. This is very different from farming scythes, which have very thin and irregularly curved blades, specialised for mowing grass and wheat only, unsuitable as blades for improvised spears or polearms.**

**THIS would be a true Scythe, not the pop culture ones seen on things like the Grim Reaper. **

**And how did Alex know this? Whelp, lets just say he had a bit of a… fondness, for studying historical weapons and how they were used in combat back in the past eras. Hence, he had **

**As for THIS War Scythe, Alex noted, it possessed the length of a typical Polearm, but there were some stark differences. For one, the black 'shaft' section looked to be covered in yellow 'veins' of some sort that constantly pulsated as if the whole thing was a living organism. The rear end of the weapon looked to have been twisted inwards to form a yellowish spiralling lance-like tip, one which looked PERFECTLY suited to stabbing into someone, ignoring trivial defences such as armour, flesh or bone. As for the main tip, it looked to be similar in colour, whilst its length rivalled that of a human forearm, with its cutting edge having been reshaped to look like a row of animalistic 'fangs', addingto te rather organic, yet downright beastly appearance and atmosphere the weapon tried to give off. **

**But, more than any of this, the most IMPORTANT and EYE CATCHING thing about the weapon in Alex's mind… was the fact that he could feel… something, from it, something which he couldn't really describe to anyone not even himself right now, but what he COULD get from the feeling was a sense of… reliability, like he could put his faith in this weapon and it would never let him down, not even once.**

**Several blinks followed suit, ones which came from both Alex AND Noire as they beheld the weapon… **

**All whilst the former uttered a single response to the whole situation that had happened, not just the weapon itself. "Well, that's new."**

**(Flashback END)**

Coming out of his trip down memory lane, Alex came back to the sight of himself jogging lightly whilst the CPUs continued being ceaselessly, mercilessly made to run ragged by Noire whom he still carried on his shoulders. The teen frowned as this happened, though it wasn't about the 'training' which Noire had been forcing the other CPUs to go through, as he glanced at his right forearm with an intense, smouldering gaze behind his yellow eyes. 'That weapon… my War Scythe… I decided to call it 'Blackbiter' due to its mostly black appearance whilst its fangs gave me the impression that it would 'bite' into my opponents.' The male thought. 'After the whole generation thing that went down, Blackbiter seemingly deformed itself and slid into my right hand. I can still 'feel' its presence on me though, as it seems to have nested in my right arm like birds building a nest for their baby chicks. As gross and disturbing as that imagery looks, I've been able to call it out in both flashy as well as discreet mannerisms. Not to mention that it's quite a strong weapon since, during a light spar with Noire in HDD Form, it held its own against her sword for the entire fight, her sword unable to break through it. In the end, whilst I don't know jack shit about what this thing is, I can see it being useful in helping me hide my abilities…'

Part of him wondered though, it had been quite easy for him (as much as it stunned him with the whole list of mysteries surrounding it) to figure out that whatever flowed through his veins was the cause for that weapon's creation. There had been no other explanation that he could think of, although the intentions BEHIND the action still eluded him. One side of him argued that it was simply adapting to the mindset that he currently found himself in, since what had happened to make this weapon seemed EERILY similar to a combination of both the consumption and disguise abilities that he had possessed. What he meant by that was that the substance that came out of him at the time had A: consumed the Stop sign after wrapping around it, then B: used the disguise ability to mimic the shape of a weapon of his choice, the War Scythe being one of the more prominent weapons that Alex had studied, which solidified into a physical form. In essence, Blackbiter came from pretty much a variation of those two powers, either from a need to adapt to his current situation or another way of giving him a weapon to fight against strong opponents with, like that other guy who had attacked him previously, he wasn't completely certain. All that he DID know, though, was that Alex had found himself a reliable way of being more useful to his Boss in her future endeavors… which may be happening sooner than he'd think.

* * *

Looked like its host was starting to catch on.

Good, very good.

Pleasure filled its being at the thought that its host was slowly yet surely figuring out the workings that it possessed, since that would mean that the host would soon start making more use out of the varied arsenal it could potentially have. To be frank, even it didn't expect things to work out as well as they had when it had been making that weapon, but in the end it felt glad that it did.

Blackbiter wasn't actually that bad a name, considering the vast potential that it carried, potential that the host remained ignorant to until it would be used against an actual opponent. There was SO much more to it than just good endurance, as well as good physical construction that it could hold off a CPU's weapon (though judging from its experience and analyzing the weapon's composition, creating a substance suitable to be a similar replica of said weapon wasn't too difficult for something as mighty as itself), its potential could even be considered tyrannical in how unfair it could turn out to be later down the line.

This had been one of the means that it had devised to develop after that whole predator incident, a means which it had thought up upon the revelation of the hot's love for physical handheld weaponry, although it still believed that one's it could create from the body were far more capable, but at least this way it could still operate largely undetected from its adversaries as well as potential threats. For some reason, the fact that it was skirting around so many potential dangers akin to those ninjas and infiltrators it had seen through the memories of its host when aid host watched action movies with its family as… some sort of thrill, something which it had not been able to feel for quite some time.

Now that the host had a weapon besides the Pincer that it will likely use more often, and with slightly less restraint by comparison, it wouldn;t have to worry about the host being defenceless in front of a superior opponent for some time. However, this was only going to be the beginning, for there were still plans to be drawn up, blueprints to develop, then stored away until the event where new Biological material from consumption would be brought into the host for it to work with.

* * *

By the time the training finished, it turned into late afternoon, early evening which prompted the blackette to let them all return to the CPU Hotel… although, each of the CPUs wouldn't have been able to stay up for very long due to how their bodies had aches all over thanks to their intense training. According to her calculations, Noire believed that they should have a decent grasp of their limits by now, since she herself hadn;t taken very long to adjust herself.

As such, the blackette herself decided to see what kind of quests were still available for her and Alex to complete for her people, having gone towards the Guild Building to see what was available, which lead to them standing before its entrance. The Guild Building itself looked remarkably similar to a 10 story tall apartment building, with panels up top which absorbed solar power to generate electricity for the facility. Not only that, but the facility had a statue of a monster sitting atop the building, a design choice that provided a rather… intimidating posture alongside its tall stature gave off the image of exactly what the Guild dealt with.

Now, the story behind the Guild, was... an interesting one.

Originally it started off as a small mercenary band during the early stages of the Console Wars, a band made up of followers who believed in each of the four Goddesses. This Mercenary band came to be when their Leaders, tired of seeing the governing bodies at the time not doing enough to support the people in their eyes, came together in a mutual agreement of these ideals. They despised one another simply for following different Goddesses, but they shared the common ground in terms of other ideals, which had garnered the way to negotiation talks on how to tackle the problems at hand. Before this, Governments dispatched their own Agents to settle these problems, however they usually left the minor ones alone and focused solely on the major threats to their lands, like enemy Nations, massive Monster Hoards, etc. Those kinds of things... whilst there had been reports of some cases where Agents ABUSED their authority for their own gains such as giving misleading information in order to kill off potential rivals and become more 'distinguished' in the eyes of their peers. Hence, fed up with the state of things at the time, these Leaders each met up in secret, due to having discovered one another by chance after a rather hectic battle between them and a bunch of tough Monsters.

When the Merc group got formed, they called themselves 'the Guild' as a way to showcase their clients that they would deal with EVERY kind of problem that got requested of them, regardless of their threat level. They wanted to make a body which would respond to even the smallest of requests, looking out for the little guy sort to speak, and even though this merc group faced one trial after another (hidden assassination attempts from Government Agents, monsters lured out to attack then, secret organisations, etc), they had managed to establish themselves as a prominent party within Gamarket due to how vast their collectively pooled resources became over time. It helped that a lot of their higher ranking members had once been government Agents themselves whom had seen the 'flaws' in the current system, thus wanted to find a way to make a significant change.

Naturally, this sweet harmony in the band couldn't have lasted long due to the different opinions within. Since this Merc group had been made from people who followed all four Goddesses, strife and discontent ran rampant within this band, with many of the higher ranked officers in the army trying to convert each other alongside any new recruits into following one specific Goddess. Some governing bodies tried to use this to their advantage to discredit the Merc band's reputation, saying that their lack of unity and 'heretical actions' would one day cause great trouble to the rest of the Nation, something which actually wasn't completely untrue since some of the band's officials tended to get a bit to 'dangerous' in their actions, dragging in innocent civilians and sometimes wound up causing needless casualties on missions.

As the years passed however, with there being various events such as purges, reformations, assassinations, internal conflicts and management directions being changed, eventually the Guild of today got formed when the Goddesses themselves decided to get involved, seeing as how this band of Mercenaries had done enough to garner their attention. In the end, after MANY talks and pondering, it got decided that this band would be disbanded, and instead turned into a government Agency with branches across the entire continent, every major city having one with small 'stores' inside the smaller villages which would provide supplies, information etc. This way, not only would the Guild survive the years as a different entity altogether, their original ideals of helping solve even the smallest problems could still be maintained whilst mitigating the conflicts to a bare minimum at the same time.

This simply scratched the surface of the group's history, but it'd be enough of a summary for the time being.

"Heading here, at last, huh…?" Alex mused under his breath, and when he glanced to the side to see Noire giving him a curious look, he decided to elaborate. "Well, I just never thought I'd come to this place for anything. I mean, I'm no adventurer, nor am I a Guild Agent either, so it never really occurred to me that i'd be visiting this place very often, if at all." he explained, getting a look of understanding from his boss. At one point in his childhood, Alex DID actually think about becoming a Guild Agent since it would have involved him going on lots of adventures and meeting many people, however, that dream soon vanished from him as he had grown up, shifting towards more of an isolated job in the games industry. Now though, it seemed that the Guild would have a role to play in his life after all… just not in the same way that he had expected.

"Ah, ok. That makes sense, since as much as people may think otherwise, not everyone wants to be a Guild Agent." Noire responded with, nodding as she strode inside with Alex right behind her. The whole interior of the Guild Building looked like what one might expect for a receptionist room, with a section to the left dedicated SOLELY to displaying the available quests that needed doing. They were shown on a series of holographic boards which were attached to either the walls, or a series of pillars which were built out of the floors themselves. Approaching one of them with her hands placed behind her back similar to a navy admiral when he stood in the centre of his ship's HQ, Noire paid little heed to the stares she got from the few people whom currently occupied the Guild Building at the moment. Most of them had been staff members preparing to leave since closing times were quite close by now, with a few exceptions.

Though, some of them also took looks at the Secretary himself, prompting Alex to have to bite back the urge to shudder in discomfort. 'Ugh… people staring at me like this does NOT feel very good…' he thought to himself, frowning as he felt his body try to ripple with Tendrils although he suppressed it for the meantime. Seemed like he wasn't the only one perturbed by the analytical gazes running up and down his back, but it wasn't like there was no reason for their actions, after all as much as Alex had already established himself in the weeks since the attack on SONY, there were STILL a minority of people who didn't exactly look on him in a 'favourable' light. Most of those people, he would guess, likely had memberships in the large and... rather fanatical fan clubs 'devoted' to their Goddess.

Seriously, there should be a religion known as 'Waifuism' somewhere, as Alex could very well imagine these guys as devoted followers of said religion.

"Hmmm… ah, here's one." Noire's words broke him out of his thoughts whilst Alex looked towards her direction, seeing the mentioned CPU turning back to him with a slight frown on her lips. She held in her right hand a holographic framed piece of paper with some details and an image of a city etched onto it, although judging by that frown he guessed she didn't like what she had seen. "This Quest's related to AGAREST, the City which General Resta Governs." she explained, holding it out in front of him before looking through the contents again, the worry in her eyes never leaving nor decreasing. "Looks like trouble's brewing over there, but… it doesn't make sense. Resta's one of the more peaceful Generals, so why is she having problems?"

Hearing this, a frown marred Alex's features too. He didn't know of anyone named Resta, and why would he? He was just some guy who came to the big city from a small town. Thus, he couldn't really give much of an opinion on this Resta character, or the words Noire used to describe her. However, hearing how unnerved his boss sounded, Alex still tried to take part in the ensuing conversation, having an idea as to what the blackette would be doing next. "This Resta person...You think she'll need any help?" he questioned.

Looking up at him, Noire gave a fierce nod, somewhat surprising him with the intensity in her eyes that burned the earlier worry like wood used for a bonfire. "Definitely, Resta's hardly the most aggressive of the Generals, but she's not someone to be trifled with either. There's a reason why people like her so much, and that's due to the common sense that she brings to the table, out of all of them, she's one of the most level headed, 'sane' ones you could say. So, for someone like her to have a problem to the point where issuing a Quest tot he Guild was considered, means that it must be important." Nodding to herself as if confirming something in her mind, although Alex already figured out what that was, she glanced back to him. "We'll take this Quest then complete it tomorrow, since it has no time limit meaning we can look into it whenever we want. But I'd rather we get it done as soon as possible, since Resta will likely be one of the easier Generals to recruit into our ranks."

With this said, Noire proceeded to head to the Guild's main reception Desk, handing the quest in for herself, Alex as well as the three CPUs to be registered to take it. Alex himself would accompany her, then go off to patrol the City streets... with some orders from his boss to 'keep himself under better control this time' in reference to what had happened previously...

All in all, their next goal had been decided to go over to the city of AGAREST, to see what was up with Resta...

Little realizing the kind of hellish nightmare they'd be going right into.

* * *

**Chapter end**

**Here we go, chapter 9 finished. Bit of a slow chapter honestly with little plot details revealed here and there, though the main highlight to me was the fact that the Guild has such a summarized backstory. I did this for a reason, so don't worry its not something that'll fall by the wayside throughout the story. If you know my OEG story, then you all know just how much I like to tie in specific lore to the characters themselves. **

**Also, what do you all think about the CPUs situation? For me, I found it a bit odd that in Hyperdevotion Noire the CPUs themselves only needed to level a bit to regain their ability to transform whilst Noire herself needed to only have a little faith from her Secretary to regain her own abilities. If the problem had been as severe as Histoire claimed it had been, then shouldn't the solution to them regaining such a thing be as serious too? Furthermore, after watching the beginning scenes a few times, I think the reason why Noire herself didn't absolutely wreck the Monsters in the beginning was simply a combination of a few things: confusion over the situation at hand which caused her unnecessary tension that froze her body in place, along with the very FACT that Monsters had appeared in her City, something which I believe hadn't happened to Noire before this point... or at least, not for a very long time. Not to mention that when she found out about her lack of powers, it shattered whatever will to fight she had left, so if the Secretary hadn't shown up, she likely wouldn't have cared about what the Monsters would have done to her.**

**In essence, the Secretary became the 'crutch' that Noire had to use for the beginning sections of the Game in order to get her confidence back and put herself on the right track. An interesting move on the developers part if I do say so myself. I'd like to see in the future if there could be either a sequel to Hyperdevotion which explains more about the Secretary (as unlikely as that is) or at least another spin off which has a self-insert male protagonist. The second one actually comes from the abundance of OC writers on fanfiction who try to make SI's of themselves and pair them with their specific waifus, or even form harems, it could be a homage to that plus it could be even BETTER if they pull a Code Vein and let us MAKE our own OC's with their own weapon specifications, maybe even a super power of our own like the HDD. Heck, if they even pull a Persona and give us choice options which help us shape our OC's personality THAT would be quite the thing to see. Though I doubt this will ever happen considering the core themes the Neptunia series is known for, but I digress...**

**Therefore, in this story I think that in regards to the CPUs regaining HDD, I'll tie in them regaining their ability to transform into the story itself, giving them plot relevant reasons to regaining their HDD instead of some crap about levels. **

**Hope you all like, and see you next chapter. **

**Peace Out!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"... So, we managed to make it all the way here… although it pains me to say that things don't look all that prosperous."

Upon the following morning, things finally got underway with the whole moving on to the next City thing which Noire had said she'd have them do. The black haired CPU had informed them of the quest they would be undertaking, whilst also saying that they had their first potential recruit selected, though she didn't elaborate on which General it was at the time, for reasons Alex didn't pry into. It had been a slightly rocky start, with the aches and pains the other CPUs had undergone during her bit of 'rehab' that she'd done, but in the end things worked out and the group of girls with one Guy finally found themselves at AGAREST. Although, like Noire had mumbled with a pained expression on her face with the matching tone, things didn't look all that great around the place.

For one, the city itself didn't seem NEARLY as lively as the main capital of SONY, in fact if one were to look at it AGAREST would look more like a mere shadow of what SONY was, and had once been during that monster attack. If anything, it almost resembled looking at the Capital right after the attack all over again, with the people's expressions hidden behind hooded clothes, others with their heads hung down and an all around generally depressed atmosphere throughout. CLEARLY, these people hadn't been doing all too well, the Party could see this just as they had walked through the main entrance way, which unlike SONY lacked a security Checkpoint. It almost seemed disturbing how little security there had been, which set off alarm bells in everyone's minds from the get go…

Well, everyone's save for Neptune's who had to be stopped MULTIPLE times by Noire from trying to buy everything she saw.

Good thing Histoire had put an allowance on the Party, making it so that they each had access to a set of funds only instead of their respective Nations' National Budget.

As he looked around and saw everything, Alex kept his lips tightly pressed together whilst his eyes, honed from the night patrols he did, had been conditioned to look for any signs of trouble. 'Judging from my past experiences, I would definitely say that if THAT guy who attacked me that night were to try again, I doubt he'd care much for collateral damage OR anyone who got caught in the crossfire.` The male thought, and when a person nearly pushed passed Noire without even looking at her, another observation crossed his mind, one which he quickly put into words to let out the following sentence. "Yeah… definitely. Even with Lady Noire's presence things don't look like they're improving, if anything this whole place feels… apathetic, like they just don't care anymore and are done with life." Alex mused, cupping his chin in thought as he looked down at the ground. "Coming from the main city and then seeing all this… My deepest sympathies, Lady Noire."

"It's fine, you're not that wrong anyways…"

"A bit of a crude observation…" Vert began, but her tone didn't imply that she disagreed with either of their words which got confirmed seconds later. "I cannot sense an ounce of positivity in these people, yet there's also no sense of danger. Calling them simply 'drifters' who are simply going through the times, wouldn't be an inaccurate way to describe them." she mused, sighing in dismay. Seeing this made her think of her people in Leanbox, making her long for their cheerful, comforting atmosphere. She knew that she had signed up for this, the moment that she had lost to the blackette in their duel, but it still felt lonely seeing all this stuff and getting reminded of how different her home had been in comparison.

Shaking her head and deciding to see if she could get them on track, Noire quickly settled on a plan of action in her mind before using it as a means to address the Party. "Alright guys, let's start with finding the City's General, we'd be staying in the dark unless we manage to speak with her." she stated, cupping her chin as she looked up towards the heavens, the well-oiled gears in her brain quickly rotating to figure out where to start looking.

"Got it." Alex replied, nodding in acknowledgement.

A hum then escaped Vert's lips once again as a thought struck the buxom blonde woman. "Unless I'm mistaken, I believe that this City is under Resta's control, is it not?" she wondered, placing an index finger on her chin. She recalled Noire simply saying that they had picked out their first General to recruit, and considering that this City was AGAREST, she believed that to be the one Noire had been talking about. She wasn't completely sure though, since she didn't really keep up with the amount of Generals on her enemy's side, that duty was usually reserved for her own military professionals to handle whilst she herself focused on more 'important' matters… in the 2D Realm, of course.

Noire then nodded in response, her tone grave like the frown on her lips as she thought back to the past… something which she found herself doing quite a bit as of late. "That's right, though every time I came to see her back then she had always been away. The few times that we did meet though showed me that she isn't the kind of person who would have let this kind of thing happen to her City, so seeing something like this makes me feel like something's up…" She explained, Alex looking down as he recalled the attack made by that mysterious man that night. He may not know much about this guy, but in the off chance that he had something to do with this…

"That could be problematic." Blanc stated, furrowing her brows as she held a book in front of her face, one which had its title covered by her hands so nobody could see it. Noire believed it to probably be a romance novel though, since she herself had recent memories of Blanc visiting book stores to buy ones belonging to that genre.

Still, it seemed that one of them just wanted to get things moving, possibly even more so than the black haired CPU… although, not for the same reasons. "Less thinking, more locomotion!" Neptune bellowed, having begun trembling on the spot until she just couldn't take it anymore, and thus let loose a loud bellow… although the surrounding people didn't look like they were paying attention. "No time to waste! I want to wrap this up, go home and play some games!" she exclaimed, falling onto the ground back first before flailing her limbs about fast enough that they became blurred to the naked eye.

BONK! X2

"Ouch!" Neptune yelped, bending herself forwards and clutching her head when two fists smashed themselves into her noggin. Each came from Noire and Alex respectively, the latter having to hold back his power in case he actually killed her. Whilst she rubbed her head to soothe the aches left behind, thankfully finding no lumps forming, Neptune looked towards the blackette and her Secretary, her eyes having an accusing gleam to them. "What gives, Noire? And why'd you let your secretary hit little ol' me? That's out of line…!" she yelled, but with the tone of voice she used it sounded more like a whine than anything.

Noire, in response, huffed. "Act serious for once! We don;t have time to be joking around!" she stated crossly, before she continued with addressing the Secretary's actions. "And besides, if double the fists can get you working, then I don't mind, not like you have that many brain cells in that head of yours to begin with." she stated, causing Neptune to bristle and the other two CPUs to mutter 'ooooh, get rekt!' under their breaths. What Noire DIDN'T mention, was how Alex had actually reduced his strength to a human's level to avoid suspicion… as well as stop a certain Lowee CPU from doing the same thing after discreetly sneaking up behind her, though she wouldn't have held back in that case. Really, such ungratefulness…

"Boo… I know, geez…!"

An unladylike snort escaped Blanc's lips as she glanced away from the Planeptune CPU. "You deserve Noire's discipline." she stated just as coldly as the ice and snow that sometimes falls onto her Nation.

Just as Neptune made to comment in obvious distress about being ganged up on by everyone again, Vert glanced to the distance ahead of them, noticing something slowly approaching them from the opposite side of the street. "Hold a moment…!" she yelled, getting everyone's attention as she gestured to the direction she had been looking at. "Noire, isn't that…?" Trailing off as the thing came closer to them, the rest of the Party soon saw it to evolve from a simple thing to a silhouette… and then it became a person swaying back and forth like a drunkard.

Only…

It turned out to be anything but that.

'That is…!'

Approaching them with weary, tired and weak movements, there looked to be a young girl, one who seemed to be grunting and groaning in pain from what Alex's hearing told him. It looked like the girl who had a pale (natural or unnatural remained to be seen) complexion and large, dark blue eyes that could barely be seen, even with his own visual acuity due to her eyelids being half closed already. Her long, pale pink curled hair showed signs of being charred in some places, yet one could still see that the hair was worn in pigtails held with a two layered accessory, the top being magenta and gold, the second layer being white. Her large tented bangs reached her eyes, whilst her thick forelocks ended at her shoulders, though one could still make out pointy, elf-like ears.

For attire, she wore a long, tattered looking sleeveless dress, one which looked to be accented with pale gold detail to match the collar around her neck. Over her dress was a layer of pale pink and magenta material, also accented in pale gold, while resting in front of her stomach was a violet bow with gold attachment holding a violet gem. The white skirt of her dress is a soft semi-pleat. Beneath each shoulder she wore a puffed sleeve of white with a gold bracelet on each wrist. On top of each sleeve was a gold and magenta band with a flower shaped piece of material beneath it. Her magenta boots had a gold sole to accent the leg, while a black diamond flap on top of the foot matches the cuff. Part of the material was cut out on the top of the foot.

However, none of this was what Alex focused on, or rather these weren't the things that were high on the Party's priority list. What they DID focus on instead, turned out to be something MUCH more serious, and that had to be the fact that the girl looked to be GRIEVOUSLY injured, like to a degree that none of them had ever seen from her before. Her dress looked like it had been shredded to ribbons along its hem, exposing her legs to just above her thighs whilst her boots looked like they had more holes in them than some used rags. These exposed some vicious looking scratch marks on her body, her legs in particular with some of them looking deep enough to be called Lacerations. Blood trails ran down them, as well as her arms and what could be seen of her body, leaving small puddles behind her as she walked, pretty much confirming the reason for her swaying being due to blood loss. It didn't look like she would last much longer either, and had only been standing and walking due to sheer willpower.

"Holy shit!"

Before anyone could respond, Alex took the reins, quickly dashing over without a care about restraining his speed or whatever, in the face of getting to the injured girl before it was too late. It looked like she noticed him running to her, for a slight smile formed on her lips as if to say 'finally, I found someone', before her eyes closed completely as her body started falling forwards. If Alex had not jumped forth, caught her and ended up twirling around a full 360 degrees to end up standing tall whilst holding her in a princess carry, she would have hit the ground head first. Not a good thing since her head had the most blood trails out of her entire body, potentially killing her should there be anything sharp on the ground that'd reach her brain if the bloodloss didn't kill her first.

"Hey, hey Mrs! You alright, please say something!" Alex called out, gently nudging her in order to be careful not to hurt her any further than she already was. Perhaps out of the entire party, he had the most excessive emotional response as he got reminded of some of the people he'd seen injured from some of the nightly criminal activity during his patrols. Unfortunately for him, it looked like the girl wasn't responding due to being unconscious right now, something he noticed just as the rest of the girls jogged up to the scene.

The first one to speak was Blanc, who glanced over the wounded girl's body with a seemingly blank gaze, although one could easily tell that it simply covered up the worry she felt inside. "Yea, this is definitely Resta alright… looks like she was attacked too, quite viciously as well." she noted, shaking her head afterwards with a look of slight urgency taking over her facial features. This wasn't the time to be wallowing in what could have happened, not with a life at stake here, so she promptly thought of a list of priorities for the Party as a whole to accomplish, starting with the endangered life before them. "She needs medical attention, and fast." she declared after her examination. She may not be a medical professional, but telling that this girl, Resta, had been put into a severe state was childsplay. She'd seen similar cases of her people being injured like this whenever she allowed them to help her on difficult quests, or whenever she got the chance to visit some of them to congratulate them when performing urgently requested Quests.

Hearing this, put Alex in a bit of a dilemma, something he had comprehended just before he could open his mouth to suggest that he leave the group to find a hotel or somewhere to treat her wounds. Normally, Alex would have jumped at the chance to help, since he was Noire's Secretary it would be simply part of his duties to be useful to her. Not only that, but the teen DID have some experience in applying first aid, due to some childhood experiences where he and his sister suffered from some antics during their wilder days, but Resta's injuries looked WAY worse than what he could feasibly treat, and whatever ran through his veins did NOT feel like something meant to save lives especially with how it brutally ended those civilians earlier. He didn't want it anywhere NEAR her wounds in that sort of situation, and worse still he and Noire still kept his powers a secret, plus it didn't feel like she would be willing to allow the others to know just yet (he didn't want to either, let's be frank here, but with people like that guy who'd ambushed him he didn't know how long this secrecy could realistically last).

'Hmmm, as much as I dislike this, I'll have to stay silent on this one, maybe one of the others could take Resta away instead, that sounds like an optional idea, plus Lady Noire SHOULD trust them enough to let them out of her sight without any concerns of them running away from her…'

"I suggest WE handle taking Resta back to Lastation with us." as he had hoped, Vert came in and saved the day by offering her own solution to this problem, although he did have to wonder why she said 'take Resta back to Lastation' where there SHOULD be some already functional medical facilities here in AGAREST. As if she had read his mind, Vert's next point provided an answer to his unasked concerns. "Since we encountered her here, it's a possibility that she could have been attacked within this city itself, which places pretty much anyone within this place under suspicion. The dreary atmosphere helps this theory out as well, therefore we can't treat her here. Bringing her back to Lastation quickly after we provide some simple treatment to stabilize her condition is a more viable option."

Blanc then joined in, stepping forwards and kneeling beside the unconscious general and speaking whilst figuring out the best way to carry her without aggravating her condition. "Not to mention that whilst monsters are indeed a problem, Resta's defenceless in this state so she won't be able to prevent further injuries, and for someone like you who, whilst seemingly somewhat skilled in fighting from what I've heard, I bet you wouldn't be able to properly defend both yourself alongside Resta at the same time." Oh, if only she knew, the male couldn't help but think whilst hiding his sudden burst of unease behind a sweat drop, which Blanc seemed to take as him agreeing with her. "I remember the way we took to get to here from Lastation too, so don't worry we'll be able to bring her to safety and be back before you know it."

A short silence of contemplation passed, before a certain lazy Planeptune CPU joined the conversation whilst rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Aw, twist my wrist why don't ya?" she commented, especially when she noticed a look being directed at her by the Secretary as if he were wanting to know what she would be doing in all this. She then got an idea, as shown by how her eyes lit up like she just had a light bulb switch on inside her head before she put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest, tilting her head upwards with a big smirk on her lips. "Fine then, I guess I'll join too…"

"I get the feeling you're just using this to further some agenda… possibly to get back to gaming or something…"

"Hmph, not bad Mr Secretary, and not baseless. Besides Neptune, you'd be nothing but dead weight."

"W-What?!"

However, two such responses shot down her bravado, as well as nearly made Neptune stumble over especially since they were followed by two large deadpanned stares from both Alex AND Blanc at the same time. As if they were saying 'girl we know what your deal is, so stop acting dumb' or something along those lines. In the end though, an annoyed Neptune (more so annoyed at being found out) huffed as she crossed her arms under her chest and turned her head away, pouting childishly. "Fine, be that way, then! I'll just make a legendary name for myself while you're on escort duty!" she declared, ignoring the rolling of the eyes that Alex did at her words.

All the while, Noire kept herself out of the drama that had unfolded, having been spending this amount of time to come up with a plan that would solve this problem effectively.

She agreed with what Vert and Blanc had said, as whilst she had every confidence in her own People in Lastation, she didn't know if the other Generals had the same kind of relationships. Every General acted in their own ways when governing their cities, and as such it's easy to assume that people prefer some Generals over others. It's all a matter of perspective really, and if she remembered correctly the people in AGAREST were… slightly mixed towards Resta as their General. A lot of them adored her for her personality and innocent outlook on things, however there were those who saw her as a naive, easily manipulated little girl who had no business running a City. Why, Noire DID recall a few times where she had heard that Resta had to fight off some Assassination attempts to try and get the City's ruler changed to 'someone more suitable', much to her internal disgust, though she never acted on this cause Resta had requested that she be allowed to deal with her problems on her own.

In the end, she decided to do like the two CPUs had said. "Alright then, you two take care of Resta while me, Alex and… Neptune, I guess, go through the city and gather intel." She stated, her arms crossed under her chest as she aimed a worried glance down at the unconscious General, pain flashing through her crimson orbs at the state she had been reduced to. Alex noticed this and mentally winced, wishing he could have done something more inside though he kept a lid on those feelings.

'Instead…' the male Secretary thought as his eyes slightly hardened when he looked down, letting his wavy bangs conceal them from view as to hide the sharpened blade-like gaze. 'I'll focus on finding out who exactly did this kind of action here… and THAT, thanks to my abilities, is where my specialty will truly shine…' Taking a moment to compose himself, Alex discreetly glanced over to his boss, who did the same thing. Their eyes met just once, and for the briefest of moments, but in that small instance a whole conversation passed between them, unheard yet its meaning conveyed without any need for words or action. Only through intent… and Noire's intent: if necessary, do what you must.

All that Alex needed to hear.

"Wait, why am I being treated like an appendix in this system of bodily organs we call a party?!"

Ignoring the loud, undignified explosion of words that Neptune had shouted in her dismay, Vert and Blanc nodded their heads as they bid him farewell. Much to the purplette's dismay as well, since they left without wishing her well too.

* * *

Hmmm…

Intriguing, so very intriguing…

Perhaps this was a sign of things to come, maybe?

Intrigue and curiosity erupted within it as Blacklight reviewed everything which it had recorded from the recent events surrounding its host. There were several things which peaked its interest through all that tediousness surrounding this group's antics, something which it irritatingly wished to be rid of… something which it could sense that its host shared with his impatience to get things done slowly growing within him over time. Perhaps it was to do with human customs as to why he was even allowing these things to hold him back, stopping him from doing what beings like him embraced, the virus realized after a moment of contemplation, though other issues soon took its interest away from that stuff.

First off, it would seem that despite the presence of these four 'Goddesses' and their Generals, humans still remained as fragmented and divided as ever, something which both relieved and annoyed it. Blacklight did not favour its prey very highly, as an all-purpose devourer of matter why would it have preference over what kind of food that it intook? Perhaps there were some types which had more 'taste' to them than others whilst some might also have some adverse effects on the host, but that's just part of the life cycle. Evolution was simply like a test, making sure that the beings created by this cycle could stand and endure its trials without too much worry. Something which it passed with flying colours every time a new situation occurred around it…

…

…

…

…

…

…

...Now that it thought about it, perhaps that was why so many feared its potential in the past, that seemed to serve as a plausible explanation as to how it had been reduced to that state before encountering fortune in the form of its current host.

Second, this 'General' had some interesting perks to her, according to what it had been able to see through its' host's optic nerves. Based off what it had seen of the being's injuries, there was no normal known monster which could have inflicted those according to its research on the various monsters known by its host, something which said host had also an inkling of in the back of his mind. This could possibly mean that they would be running into more of its kind in the near future, a closer future than they would have expected which had become the primary concern for Blacklight. Not only had they lacked any decent progress in mutation development, it hadn't even finished the planning stages for possible defences against that one guy either.

In this case, it believed that it'll have to focus on increasing its preparation speeds, cause judging by these events it foresaw an inevitable confrontation between these unknown forces and its host. In that inevitable scenario, Blacklight knew for a fact that immense preparation would be needed.

Preparation for the incoming bash.

* * *

Later, after the two had left the Party Noire, Alex and Neptune proceeded to start gathering information. Well, knowing how Neptune was, the black haired CPU didn't expect her to do much to begin with, probably just laze about somewhere eating sweets, something which made her wonder if she should have just sent Neptune along with the others anyways. After all, if she had done that, then perhaps they could have made use of… Alex's powers, to gather information, although she quickly realized a flaw in that plan.

A flaw both of them agreed on.

Sure this 'method' of gaining information had been something which could elicit great results since he got it straight from the source without much worry over lying or falsified info, BUT if they were to get the wrong people, namely innocents unaware of the situation, involved then what would be the difference between her, Alex and the monsters? After all, consuming may as well be killing those people since they're literally being… devoured, alive according to what Alex had been able to explain to her about the ability's workings. They managed to discuss this without Neptune overhearing, although once they found things to distract her with they simply talked about it easier since the preteen tended to lose herself in whatever thing she enjoyed doing.

Therefore, instead of going with that option, the trio (or rather mainly Noire and Alex with one freeloading Planeptune CPU) each went with the safer option in the form of asking around for information. Of course, Alex had, in a moment of brilliance, managed to use both his past experiences with trying to read people, mostly to protect his younger sister along with his mother from those who'd wish to do them harm, and his own powers to suss out where they would need to go alongside who they'd have to ask to get the most intel. Which had resulted in them visiting large, public places such as Taverns, restaurants, parks etc where they'd split up to ask as many people as possible in order to have the most amount of responses.

By the time the day neared the middle of the afternoon, the group re-assembled within a largely vacant street, in order to gauge what they had found out. As the two of them had expected, Neptune had been the one to work the least out of all of them, something which irritated Noire immeasurably though she kept a lid on it, already experienced with the laziness that personified her. Alex had… a bit more of a difficult time adjusting in comparison, but not by that much. In order to record their findings, each of them had jotte it all down on one notebook between each of them, making 3 individual records in total.

Though, one thing wasn't taken into account…

And that was that while Neptune's work ethic guaranteed a low amount of intel, it seemed as though Alex and Noire shared a similar level of dedication since their entire notebooks were filled to the brim with information… Something which the young secretary quickly made note of as he spread them all across his lap, the teen having chosen to sit on a nearby bench with the two girls sitting on opposite sides of him. "Looks like we got a pretty big haul here."

"Of course, under normal circumstances the Generals are treated like Idols by their Cities, though as you might be aware there are those who can become… dissatisfied with their work as rulers. As such, it's not unexpected that they've seen her around." Noire replied, causing Alex to hum in acknowledgement. It made sense to him, cause from what he had learned in history class, there has been a long line of female heroes and important figures throughout the four Nations and their subordinate Cities. As such, women had slightly more value in this world than males did, but it hadn't been NEARLY as bad for men as it had been in the past… stuff which Alex didn't want to get into for the time being, or ever even. Of course there had been quite a few male prominent figures too, but the ratio of them and female ones had been like 2 to 1. Looking at the info they had gleaned over, Noire's eyes glinted as a possible idea came to her mind. "From what we have here, it would seem that she's been making regular trips to another City…"

A thoughtful hum escaped Alex's lips, he'd been thinking that too since they'd begun comparing notes, and whilst part of him wondered if she were planning an invasion of that city since according to their research, AGAREST had been running a bit low on supplies due to some recent monster attacks. However, he had suspended that idea and whacked it out of his mind once he'd seen her, as from what he'd seen Alex didn't think that Resta would have been the type of person to do such things. Perhaps that was a bit presumptuous of him since he was a stranger to her, but he got this idea through observations of the girl's mannerisms before she'd fallen unconscious to give him a better read into her personality.

He'd once read that one's clothing can tell a LOT about the person wearing them, they showcase what a person values and a little about personality. A person wearing a suit says something different compared to a person with shorts and a tank top. Color and style are important, but so are other things. Are the clothes loose or tight? That says if the person is trying to attract attention to his or her figure or not. How long are skirts or shorts? Is there jewelry, especially socially unacceptable jewelry? It's also telling if the clothes are neat or wrinkled, dirty or clean.

In Resta's case, he would make an educated guess that her personality had a bit of childish innocence to it, something which someone who wanted to launch an aggressive invasion would NOT have since it could prove detrimental to the whole operation. In the end, Alex went with another option as he glanced up at his Boss. "You think she got attacked by another, then? Those wounds looked like they came from some sort of battle…"

A simple nod was what Noire responded with, followed up with the following. "It would make even more sense to say that she was attacked and she acted in defence. If that's the case, then whoever did so must have been quite strong, since no ordinary Guild Agent or adventurer can face a General on even ground." That made sense, the male mused in his head. Since Generals had Share Energy flowing through them like the CPUs did, then they would obviously be stronger than the average human, maybe even superhuman he wasn;t sure since he'd never seen one fight before. "In the end though, all of this is just speculation at this point, only Resta can fill us in when she wakes up…"

"Though if you ask me, I'd say that we're on the right track." Alex interjected, and upon getting a questioning look from his Boss, elaborated. "I mean, from those… memories of the people I've consumed, some of them have had experiences dealing with wounds caused by explosions. Resta back then, looked to have very similar looking wounds so she had to have been around something explosive in order to receive them. That means that her having been in a battle or something similar is actually quite plausible." He explained, going through the memories of some of the criminals inside his mind.

As much as he would cringe at the thought of having to commit such actions to gain these memories, Alex did have to admit one thing: that this ability came in handy in WAY more situations than he'd like to admit. Going through them and absorbing every life experience they offered would have made him feel like a damn old man who'd lived way too many lifetimes, but regardless he still used these powers.

Especially since he believed that he will be needing them in the upcoming future.

Though, this didn't mean there weren't any cons to these… some more psychological than others.

Sometimes when he looked through them, Alex felt like he was literally BECOMING their original wielder, losing his own sense of self in the process. It wasn't something easily noticed, especially by himself, but a few times Alex almost found himself staying within those memories for a long time, believing them to be HIS memories when in reality they weren't. He slowly found it harder and harder to remember who 'he' was, and the teen feared that it would only get worse once more foreign memories piled up… yet ANOTHER thing to add to the list of worries he had about his future.

But aside from that, Alex needed to focus, there was an intense, unknown and downright ominous situation brewing here that needed his undivided attention.

"Right. But that isn't possible now, so let's keep gathering information. We might learn something interesting."

"That's always possible, I guess…" Alex mused thoughtfully, although considering how much they had already he doubted that they would glean anything new in such a short amount of time.

One of the things he'd learned through the, as he would now call it, 'memory surfing' turned out to be stuff related to reconoscence, so far it seemed as though they had been doing this via questioning civilians and observing their surroundings. Should they keep doing these things, Alex doubted they would learn anything new, heck part of him wondered if Noire had some sort of authority which would allow her to look over the reports of the City's affairs that Resta could have had in her Office.

Since Resta had been part of Noire's posse once before, they had to have made it official at some point, but perhaps the situation had changed to where they were now neutral towards one another, and whatever authority allowed Noire to look through Documents pertaining to AGAREST had been lost thanks to this relationship shift. He wasn't sure, and before Alex could ask her about that, he noticed something outside the corner of his eye. "Huh? Those girls over there…"

Noire glanced over to where her Secretary had been pointing, and true enough, about 8 girls at least in their early 20's wearing some sort of military uniform and seemingly equipped for combat, stood talking to one another. 'Plot Convenience, anyone…?' the male couldn't help but wonder... However, the moment he had been made to ask them some questions while walking on over, something caused his nose to twitch…

and Alex FROZE.

His form completely tensed up, freezing as if frozen inside one giant block of ice. His eyes shot open wide, his mouth falling downwards into a gaping expression with pure, unadulterated TERROR becoming his dominant expression. The moment he sniffed the air around them, made the teen recall the time when he had fought that mystery guy in the night before, Alex hadn't much idea why but for some reason their scent, something which he had discovered was heightened along with his other 4 senses, reminded him of that man somewhat. Whilst he didn't know why that was, it definitely gave him reason to be alarmed, especially with his very instincts SCREAMING at him to be alert , that something was going to happen should he continue his previous actions. 'This… this is…!'

"Hm?"

"Nepu?"

Upon seeing this take over their friend, Noire and Neptune tilted their heads curiously, though the concern on the former's face became more evident than the easygoing latter. The Secretary's actions had attracted their attention quite quickly, and according to their experiences the guy wouldn't usually react so… strongly to just a bunch of girls. "Yo, you feeling ok Secretary?" Neptune questioned, placing her hands on the back of her head nonchalantly. "Ya look like ya just saw a ghost or something. Could it be that you've found a family relative among them you've been looking for since a while now, or something?"

No response got given to that.

Whilst Neptune pouted over how Alex neglected to give her any form of response, Noire herself, someone who had WAY more experience with Alex along with a more… collected and informative opinion on his personality, mentally went over the scenario to see if she could figure out what spooked her Secretary so much. She didn't like it after all, not one bit. 'That face… it twisted into something of horrified realization if I were to guess after taking a look at it…' Noire thought as she glanced at the girls in uniform, who were eyeing Alex just as weirdly as he had been before. She didn't get why herself, but as a couple seconds passed her instincts began telling her something was going wrong with this picture. 'Normally my Secretary is usually quite composed, and the way his nose twitched beforehand.. He did say that his senses were enhanced, and with the way he acted ust after sniffing could mean… oh no, could it be?' One possible thought process entered her mind, and as soon as it did she hoped, she HOPED beyond all hope that it wasn't what she thought it was.

If it were the case, then...

As soon as she came to a similar conclusion to her Secretary, each of the 8 women broke into mad sprints as they rushed towards them.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Surprise attacks had always been something which had an element of surprise to them that would cause the victims to have a momentary freezing of their bodily movements from the shock. Usually just long enough for professionals to land in the fatal blows in assassinations…

However, that didn't happen with him, as instead his response had already been prepared.

In an instant, one opponent had gotten close enough to him that she could slice through his throat with her twin daggers. 'Oh, fuck!' Alex squealed within his mind, his heart practically leaping out of his body through his mouth whilst he bent his upper body backwards to avoid the first Dagger, then sidestepped to the left whilst realigning himself straight to avoid the second. He stomped his left foot onto the ground and used that as a basis for twisting his body to the right, launching a downward knee to the woman's head to try and put her in a daze, however the woman blocked by reaching behind her with her left arm to catch his knee with her Dagger. The weapon SHOULD have cut into his flesh at the moment of contact, but fortunately for Alex his superhuman-like body proved much more effective on the battlefield, thus this didn't affect him any.

Quickly exploiting this split second opportunity when he saw the surprised and shocked expression on the woman's face, Alex used the left behind momentum to swing his War Scythe Blackbiter towards the back of the soldier's neck, intending to smack her with it's shaft so he could both daze the foe and temporarily disable her movement. The male WOULD have aimed for her tendons with the bladed part, but A: he didn't want to hurt the woman beyond what was necessary, and B: the position he had found himself in didn't allow for that, though in the end it became all for naught when the soldier seemingly ducked onto all fours and launched a sweep kick whilst he had been focusing on his weapon, tripping the male up and throwing him off balance, resulting in Alex falling backwards towards the ground back first.

'Shit!'

This was bad!

Well, this entire fight was bad, but this position he'd entered was even worse!

That clear in his mind, Alex promptly rolled to the side, and a good thing too since a second later the female soldier had come down with a forward flipping axe kick where his head had used to be. Thus, it only hit the hard, unforgiving earth instead, but upon doing so Alex's superhuman hearing detected a low rumbling through the ground beneath him, and when he managed to glance at the spot where the foot had struck, his eyes came face to face with the sight of it creating… a rather human sized crater, pretty much leaving behind multiple pieces of rubble from the blow itself, each of them twisted and jagged like they had been forced out of their natural positions… which wasn't wrong, actually.

'Again: holy cow… could what I saw have been the truth… if so, then when, how? How could THAT have happened?'

Shock and confusion filled his mind and slowed his movements, not like he noticed though, and who could blame him? A wild and horrifying idea had come into being from the moment where he'd first seen those females, his senses and instincts telling him things that... he really wished weren't true, but perhaps they were, and this right here had been some of the proof Alex needed to justify this. This execution of strength… he didn't want to but he could imagine VIVIDLY how if that had hit any normal person, then it would be likely that their faces being turned into a pinkish coloured pace nearly instantly, causing instant death all the while. Worse still, judging by the killing intent that had been aimed at them, that likely would have been the actual case, in which this fight would be made a hell of a lot harder too. He did NOT look forward to the talk he'd have to have with Noire about this theory, nor what the immediate future would bring them with this new revelation.

Though, as it would soon turn out, this wouldn't be the end of Alex's worries by a long shot, since another soldier, this time a woman armed with a Knife/Pistol Combo aimed the latter weapon at his head… or rather, where it would eventually be whilst he rose to his feet. The inevitable sound of gunfire resonated through his ears, and in that split second Alex instinctively put his War Scythe in front of him, Blackbiter's blade covering a portion of his face… which then got followed by the audible sound of a bullet colliding with metal: signifying the shot's deflection. Multiple more gunshots got fired afterwards in rapid succession, but Alex dealt with them in a similar fashion, all before helicopter spinning his War Scythe and, with a sneaky application of his superhuman strength (something he'd learned of when he LITERALLY kicked a full grown ass man across an entire baseball court), Alex gripped Blackbiter's handles before he performed wide, large and overarching sweep.

Now, the thing about this action was that Aex had thought of it and had decided to risk id BASED off of previous assumptions of what he had observed about his new body. This wasn;t necessarily wrong, plus he DID have some suspicions that this wasn;t all that his body was capable of, but he just made a bit of a TOO BIG of an assumption in that what he had seen before had been the limits of his strength. Since we,, he could both run up buildings which required a considerable amount of speed, not to mention jump really high which meant he had great leaping ability. In essence, what he believed would happen would not be the same as what would actually happen.

As in, he swung with enough force that the weapon practically bent itself just to keep itself stable, even though it didn't look NEARLY like it was designed by whatever had birthed it to do something like this..

Therefore, what was the result of the swing, one might be curious?

Oh, nothing much...

… Just a shockwave that erupted from the force behind the swing like a strong gust of wind, the force blowing back EVERYTHING around him that wasn't nailed down… its width slightly longer than a single decker bus.

Yup, completely normal.

'Holy... cow…' The teen couldn't help but think in stunned awe, his wide eyed glancing down at the weapon he held in his hands.'Guess I was wrong to think that my strength would be the same as that moment…' The male thought as the two Soldiers, obviously professionals if the way they recovered in mid air, landed, glanced at one another like they communicated just from that alone, was any indication. More proof came when they split up to attack from multiple slides, one of them proceeding to kick some debris into the air by stomping, then launched another kick to launch the debris towards him as if it were a makeshift bullet.

Seeing it coming, Alex's gaze hardened as he stood at the ready, his legs positioned widely and Blackbiter ready to swing. That little demonstration more than spoke for this weapon's effectiveness, therefore he had no qualms with striking against the debris flying towards him with it, thus he didn't show any surprise or any other reactions to when, upon swinging it, Blackbiter smashed the debris into pieces. As the pieces fell, he sensed someone coming from his opposite flank and, with a quick twirl of Blackbiter, Alex managed to deflect an incoming slash to his throat whilst swerving his head out the way of a speeding bullet fired afterwards, all before he ducked down and performed a sweep kick.

Much like how effective the move had been when used against him, combined with his superhuman speed and reflexes, the result became that of the woman gasping as her feet got kicked out from under her. However, to divulge from that path, Alex performed one last attack, swinging Blackbiter like a golf club and sending her flying across the battlefield, into a set of nearby wooden crates.

'Whew, that's one down for now… but now that I think about it, what's Noire and Neptune's situation?'

As the fighting temporarily slowed down, Alex then proceeded to wonder what befell his companions (including his boss). Thanks to the sudden rush of the last few moments, the teen didn't have the chance to see what had happened to Noire and Neptune before, but from the sounds of blades clashing, feminine grunts and childish wails (most likely Neptune's) they had found themselves stuck in a similar situation to himself. 'Looks like I'm on my own for the time being… better create an opening then go regroup with the others. These females, not only did they launch a surprise attack but they also split us apart from one another…'

Aside from these thoughts, another worry plagued Alex's mind, and that revolved around their disturbing levels of ability, almost as if they were superhuman. No ordinary person would have been able to smash the ground like that first soldier had, their foot may as well have been smashed to bits if they tried, not a sight Alex wanted to picture. Especially when he recalled how once he had experimented to see what his body could do with regards to damage, and managed to bash his hand in… it just regenerated back to normal within a couple seconds.

'Ugh, think about that later!' Alex shouted in his mind whilst shaking his head with tightly closed eyes and gnashed teeth. 'Right now, focus on the current, lest you get your companions-'

Before he could continue, a sharp sense of danger came from his rear, causing Alex to quickly launch into a backflip which ended up in him avoiding a flying kick from one of the two soldiers attacking him… only for a third one to come in, catching Alex by surprise, and slam a fist into his side before he could react. A loud grunt of pain escaped his lips when this happened, as he got sent flying through the air and landed on the ground, stabbing Blackbiter's rear end into the ground to slow his momentum to a halt before getting up from his crouch position, just in time to start deflecting multiple knife attacks from the first soldier. She slashed away at him at super high speeds, coming in from all kinds of different angles and forcing him to step back multiple times whilst deflecting them by twirling Blackbiter around. Although Alex DID manage to get in a few attacks of his own by using the momentum from his twirling War Scythe, he couldn't get too many in as he also had to keep his eye out so he could dodge some gunshots from the second soldier.

The third, who had been running along a building's wall during all this (much to Alex's shock and horror), leapt back into the air whilst reaching behind her, soon pulling both hands out from her rear area to showcase…. Multiple grenades. Alex gaped when he saw those, his thoughts unravelling into chaos upon their visages becoming clear. Was this woman serious?! Was she going to use THOSE in a civilian area like this city?! Tru there weren;t many around, but still it was the principal of the matter! That had been what he had thought to the core… right as the woman threw them down at him whilst her companions jumped back at the last second.

'SHIT! Gotta deflect them!'

Hurriedly, Alex twirled Blackbiter in prep to deflect them, although several whiz sounds rang through the air, and in the next second Alex glanced down to see several long gash marks over his wrists, his eyes lighting up in panic at the sight of them. 'Oh no, bullets cut through my wrist tendons!' he realized, once he noticed the second soldier's steaming gun barrel and figured out what had just went down in those last few seconds. Then, before he could even CONSIDER doing anything else…

BOOM-BOOM-BOOOM-BOOM!

* * *

"Crap!"

"Nepu?!"

Upon hearing the sound of explosions from nearby, both Noire and Neptune whom had managed to regroup with each other (although both remained in human form, one because she couldn't access it yet and the other in order to preserve her power), let out their own surprised, and slightly startled, responses. The two maidens stood back to back, each of them armed with their respective weapons: Noire with her Rapier and Neptune with her Katana, whilst being surrounded by the remaining five of the soldiers who had previously split them apart. Before, they had managed to fight quite well against these attackers, having grown used to ambushes over the many battles they'd fought in throughout the Console War, so it hadn't taken them long to bash their way through their opponents' blockades and rejoin one another.

But the moment that they heard those Grenades, the black haired CPU and her ally quickly recalled that they had one other member, and that said member likely had been where the explosions had occurred according to the blackette's theory on where he had been located.

"Those explosions… how drastic!" Noire exclaimed as she parried a couple slashes from one soldier, then flicked her Rapier and made a flurry of different motions, deflecting multiple pistol rounds from another soldier. Finally, she brought her weapon down and a fourth soldier, whom had taken this opportunity to try and get within her blind spot, had to raise her Knives into an X shape to block it from reaching it's target, then stepped back after parrying multiple thrusts towards areas of her body that would have left her immobile should they have hit. Although, considering the growing theory in her mind, Noire wasn't sure if that would have been actually true or not…

"Think we should just ditch these losers and go get that Secretary, Lonely Heart?"

"Shut up, stop calling me that already, and of course we should!"

Both CPUs held a brief conversation, one that on the outside looked like they were quarrelling like young toddlers trying to get the best toy in a toy store. However, to those who have more of a brain like the soldiers surrounding them, they could see the REAL deal going on here: the intent that had been transmitted between them, the women soldiers could perceive it as clear as crystal. Fighting these guys on their lonesome wouldn't have necessarily been too much of a bother for these two female warriors, they'd fought against much tougher foes in the past so these guys wouldn't amount to much in comparison. However, the fact that they had a third member whom could be in potential danger (well, Noire knew otherwise, but she had to keep up appearances, and thanks to her 'hobby' she had QUITE the good acting skill) took priority, thus they had to break through this encirclement as quickly as possible.

Therefore, to that end…

FWOOSH!

FWOOSH!

In an instant, both Noire AND Neptune broke into a mad dash, heading straight for the direction where they had heard the explosions come from, explosions which Noire had realized shortly after hearing them had been those coming from Grenades. Of course, it wasn't like the soldiers would let them regroup, either, thus they quickly grouped together in front of the two CPUs, forming a curving wall-like formation with their Pistols already primed and ready to fire.

I'm going ahead, Neptune!"

"Nepu?"

Seeing their intentions and becoming HIGHLY irritated by them, Noire gritted her teeth whilst building up a resolved look of determination within her crimson coloured orbs. She had done this after realizing she had no other option but to go HDD, something she didn't want to do since she didn't want to waste her energy on 'minions' as her gaming sense had told her, rather she'd like to have saved this for when she faced the inevitable 'big boss' commanding these people, however sometimes one couldn't be too picky, something she'd learned the hard way. But, on the bright side, it'd make sure she could get to her secretary as soon as possible. He was the first one to become her direct subordinate like this, so she didn't want that kind of talent to be wasted, not to mention she didn't want these people figuring out his secret… though if her theory was correct perhaps they already had the moment that their eyes had met.

FLASH!

A bright flash signified her transformation's process starting, and by the time it did so each of the Soldiers had been only a second away from launching a flurry of bullets their way. The flash did serve one battle purpose though, and that had been that it temporarily forced them to cover their eyes, stopping their attacks for all the time that the transforming CPU needed. When iot died down, the formidable form of Black Heart took the previous self's place, flying straight through the air and barrelling right through the aforementioned wall of soldiers.

"And for the Coup De Gras: LACE RIBBON DANCE!"

SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!

Then, just for some good measure and some extra time to be bought for her Secretary recovery mission, Black Heart even performed a quick LACE RIBBON DANCE, basically one of her sword skills which involved a flurry of high speed slashes which she used to take apart the enemy, leaving them with multiple deep wounds of varying degrees of lethality.

"Maan… with all that's going down, I miss HDD… I don't like being nerfed!"

"We'll find a way for you and the others to transform again, Neptune, but for now hush those gobs and leg it!"

A quick complaint from the preteen got launched during all of this, but the shield known as the latter deflected the issue for another time. Despite this though, neither Black Heart or Neptune focused on this for long, for the moment that they broke through the barricade, both girls found a certain Secretary on the ground, sprawled out and seemingly unconscious.

"Nepu! Alex!".

"Secretary!"

Shock and horror escaped the two girls as they quickly converged on his position, getting a good look at the injuries that the boy had sustained. Seemed as though the boy had been pretty much BATHED in grenade fire, they'd realized, since his whole body had been covered in third degree burns with the smell of charred flesh filling the air surrounding obviously included the fact that most of his clothes had been burnt to a crisp, leaving only his essentials covered and secure There were MANY red spots with darker outlines sprawled throughout his form, burns which looked like they would scar should they be able to heal over. Furthermore, a lot of his hair had been burned to nothingness, leaving his scalp mostly exposed whilst some areas on his face looked like they had melted clean off, exposing the bones and innards beneath. One of his legs looked like it would be about to fall off too, same for both his arms whilst his War Scythe Blackbiter couldn't be seen anywhere.

All in all, to say that Alex looked like shit would be an understatement.

"G-Geez… this looks quite bad, Nepu..." Neptune muttered, her features expressing just how shocked to downright terrified she felt, seeing the boy like this. Heck, her skin paled to that of a ghost till she couldn't stand to look at him anymore and looked away, trying not to gag or to vomit out her lunch. Sure she and him didn't get along so much, but the guy wasn't all that bad in the grand scheme of things… so seeing him reduced to such a state like he had been reduced to now, it… yeah, it really didn't sit well with her.

After completing her own analysis on her Secretary's condition whilst suppressing her own nausea at seeing him like this, Black Heart focused more on the flames of liquid whit hot rage that burst up inside her chest, as she twisted around to face the regrouping soldiers. Even as she gnashed her teeth as murderous intent began to radiate from her being (a faint flash of dark green briefly appearing then disappearing within the silverish aura of Share Energy surrounding her), the Lastation CPU still had the sense to notice that they hadn't recovered from the wounds she had dealt them earlier, something which brought her a sick sense of twisted pleasure as she held her sword at the ready. "We'll have to get him treatment quickly. I'll bring him back to Lastation with me after we finish these guys. Let's move it, Neptune!"

"Righto!" Declared the preteen as she held her Katana at the ready, glaring heatedly towards the recovering enemy as well with an angry look on her face too, although it didn't have NEARLY the same intensity as the one which her fellow CPU donned. Inside her mind, Neptune also had some… interesting thoughts too. 'Wonder if my nep-brain's on high or something, but swore I noticed some sorta aura around Lonely Heart there… meh, it must be a plot thing.' She mentaly mused, as the two CPUs got ready to attack and utterly ANNIHILATE these soldiers, no longer caring much for interrogation in favour of brutal destruction and ruin.

However, just before they could start…

"Hold!"

BOOM!

"?!"

"?!"

All of a sudden, from above a figure jumped from a nearby building, crashing into the centre of the battlefield and stopping everyone in their tracks just from their presence alone. The new arrivl's entry got accompanied by a low tremor caused from their landing, all whilst they generated a light dust cloud which obscured the arrival's form from view, although both CPUs could tell that the person had been a member of the female gender. However they didn't put that into much priority since, thanks to this that one instant, a serious, tension-filled aura erupted from that person, looking similar to the one which Black Heart had sported before only with a hint of gold to it, something which the girls were quick to recognize inside their minds.

'A General…!'

There was no mistaking it in their minds, the identity of this person who had just arrived, indeed must have possessed the title of 'General', just like Resta had. The proof came from the slightly gold tinted aura which was actually Share Energy, only it had changed colour from the 'pure' platinum that the CPUs possessed due to the human body not being capable of hosting that kind of energy. One could say that the gold tint within a General's aura was of a slightly more diluted Share Energy compared to the purified form that the CPUs had, this golden tint becoming much more prominent whenever the General 'awakened' due to the energy surging through the human body more… intensely, for lack of a better word. Now, since they knew the identity of this person that was a General… there were several others that needed to be answered.

One of them being: WHICH General was it? Then, why was that General here?

"Hold your positions! Status updates, everyone!"

"Wh-What the heck…?"

Black Heart stammered, her aura having vanished from her position thanks to her rage no longer fuelling it, although despite this change in the scenario, she still remained in her HDD Form just in case things went awry again. Although, part of her actually WANTED that to happen so she could make those soldiers pay for harming her Secretary like this… wait, what? Where did that last part come from? Shaking her head to get rid of those thoughts, Black Heart once again focused on the situation taking place in front of her, as although she couldn't see her foes at the moment thanks to the dust cloud in front of her, she could still hear the soldiers confiding with the new arrival about the situation.

"... So, conducting espionage about Resta, were they?"

The arrival hummed thoughtfully at that, which made the two girls wonder how this person would respond. One thing that they didn't want to happen though, was for this person to decide to aid their subordinates in fighting them, ince as much as they wanted vengeance for their fallen comrade, the fact that Alex needed some medical treatment FAST was something more important in their minds., thus they didn't want to fight any longer than necessary.

In the end…

"Still, you all engaged in combat way too quickly! Report back to the barracks for debriefing and disciplinary action!"

"Y-Yes, ma'am!"

Turned out that they had no need for any worries at all, for the General involved turned out to be one who had a brain, since they ordered the apparent subordinates to retreat and seemingly intended to punish them. Something which apparently the group seemed to dread of their panicked expressions that formed seconds after hearing those orders were any indication, though like proper professional soldiers they followed said orders down to the T, quickly retreating jumping away from the scene.

Turning back to the two CPUs, the General (still clouded by the smoke) seemed to make a gesture of apology since they lowered their upper bodies like they were lowering their heads. "My apologies for my subordinates. They mean well, but they acted far too quickly, and without proper informachin..."

...

…

…

…

…

…

Silence passed between the parties involved though the previous serious and tense atmosphere had been pretty much DESTROYED by that misspelling at the end of the General's sentence. Whilst they guarded their fallen comrade, Neptune and Black Heart looking at the covered General with 'WTF' gazes, and whilst they couldn't see the General's expression both CPUs got the feeling that the General's features has contorted into embarrassment the moment she realized what had just transpired. Something which soon got proven by the following words. "I-I mean, e-engaged you without proper clearants! Tch… tactical retreat action, go!"

Finally unable to take it anymore, the General too retreated from the scene, in a manner similar to the subordinates from earlier, leaving both Black Heart and Neptune alone in the street with the wounded Alex.

"...*SIGH* well, that was something which I didn't expect to see today…" After no longer being able to see the General's shadowed figure, Black Heart heaved a heavy sigh, showcasing just how done she was with this whole situation. However, she still didn't have time to calm down yet as she glanced down at Alex's unconscious form still, her eyes shining with urgency as she then turned towards Neptune. "Alex needs medical attention immediately, Neptune. I'll take him somewhere safe for now, meanwhile you take these Credits." She began, handing Neptune some Credits with one hand after returning to her Human form and pulling said Credits out of her inventory. Normally, Noire wouldn't even THINK about trusting Neptune with the amount of money needed to rent a room or something like that, but considering the situation at hand she felt that this was needed. "Go find an apartment we can stay at for our stay here."

"U-Uh, right! Take care of ya Secretary while mwah's away then, Noire! We don't want this story's first death to be the MC!"

"Plot Armour exists for a reason, now get going!"

After yelling that out, Noire watched out as Neptune soon jogged out of sight, turning a corner, soon making it so that only the two of them. Staring down at him for a while instead of actually doing anything like she had said she would, not even activating HDD either, Noire finally did something after a couple minutes. She gave a low sigh whilst placing one hand on her hip and the other by her side."Its alright now, Alex. You can stop with the act now." she declared, no longer sporting ANY of the previous tension she had before.

At first one might declare her as being heartless if they were an outsider to their situation…

"Thanks Noire, shoulda figured you'd realize it soon enough."

Then those people would be thrown into a whirlpool of confusion when they see Alex shifting his head to look up at her, looking like he didn't even FEEL his injuries at this moment in time. The male's form soon began to get covered by his signature black and green Tendrils, which began to repair his wounds as a sign that his body's natural regeneration prowess had begun to kick in. The burns got new skin layers covering them with the pigments returning to their previous states, whilst the holes on his face quickly closed up to return to their formerly masculine states. New hair strands grew out of his scalp, reforming his hairstyle whilst his body restored the damage done to his four limbs as well. Whilst this happened, the male's formerly singed brow twitched as sounds of irritation escaped his lips. "Y-Yeah… shoulda figured this would be this annoying… healing all these injuries is really uncomfortable..." The male mused, grimacing and groaning as the sounds of flesh being manipulated rang through the air.

Sounds which Noire herself also looked bothered by, if the uncomfortable expression on her face was any indication. "You DID have me watch you test your powers out on multiple occasions, so I was aware of your healing abilities, Alex. Also, you DO realize I'm not stupid like Neptune, I know an Act when I see one." she responded, glancing to the side since she couldn't stomach the sight of the male's rapidly healing body. Not like that made things any better considering how she could still HEAR them, which implied that his internal injuries had been much more numerous than his external ones considering the sounds of bones snapping back into place and muscles restoring themselves back to their former glory that she heard VERY audibly. "Good thing you played that little act though, cause it convinced the others that you were down for the count, enough so that they wouldn't think about finishing you off. Our secret's still safe, though for how long I'm no longer as sure now. By the way, were those injuries… were they genuine, or did you exaggerate them somehow? Cause during some tests you got hit with way worse explosives and more powerful bombs, but you emerged pretty much fine from them."

Promptly getting up once he found himself able to, Alex stretched his arms upwards whilst contently moaning at the feeling of finally being able to move again, although he soon answered his boss's question as seriously as ever. "Normally yeah, but it's really a combination of things. Those Grenades… I don't think they were standard issued ones, if you ask me." He explained, elaborating when his CPU boss raised an eyebrow. "I mean, when they hit me I FELT them eating away at me from the inside for a long time period, and the amount of damage they did to me initially had been WAY larger than ordinary weaponry, something which should normally not be possible considering. You remember when we tested my endurance and found that I had become bulletproof right? Well, their weapons were able to pierce through me even though I still managed to fake being unconscious so I could see what was happening, which implies something VERY concerning about their weaponry…"

"Yeah, I had a similar theory in mind when I fought them… not to mention you reacted strangely when you approached them, and they seemed to respond in kind." Noire mused, frowning worriedly upon recalling THAT particular instance. The stuff about the weapons had been alarming enough, but if this theory turned out to be true then things just got a WHOLE lot more complicated. Complicated in that she may have no other option but to bring the other CPUs up to speed on the situation since trying to solve this large-scale problem whilst keeping them in the dark would be a near impossible task in her eyes, even with his versatile abilities and her own distrust towards them.

Alex nodded, mentally commenting about how Noire seemed to have similar wavelengths to him if she had noticed that and, judging by her words, had come to a similar conclusion to himself. "Well, I don't really get it myself, but the moment I saw them I… felt something, and NO it wasn't anything like love at first sight." For some reason, the male felt like he had to get that out there, like someone would jab at him about this in the future so he just wanted some evidence to dissuade them. "Anyways, I felt… something akin to that guy I fought that night, although it felt inferior in terms of quality and power… I don't know, but it was enough to catch me completely off guard, which helped them gain the upper hand against me. Sorry about that, Lady Noire."

Noire promptly waved off his apology, not really concerned with that. "Don't be sorry, Alex, if what you say is true and I'm inclined to believe it is, then things would have ended up this way even if it were I myself who talked to them. Those people… if they have such weapons and possibly powers, then perhaps they know what's going on better than we do, which does NOT bode well for the situation's overall scale…" The blackette mused darkly, her eyes narrowing into slits as an ominous aura crept up around her, horrifying thoughts about the future entering her mind. "Going onto another subject, since you faked being out cold you must have seen that General appear, right?" she questioned, getting a nod from the male in question. "Yeah, well… I think that might have been Lid."

"Eh? How do you know? You didn't even get a good look at her like myself and Neptune thanks to all that smoke…"

"Ah, it's because of how she acted." the blackette replied as she stepped back and turned away from him, tilting her head back to look at the skies. "Out of the majority of my Generals of the past, Lid was one of the few who acted like a proper soldier to me, she's more soldier-like than General if you asked me. Plus, she's the only one who's got that mispronouncing habit, no other General can do it quite like her… now that I think about it, even though she's part of my Lastation force and her city's nearby, its odd that she's lackeys to spy here…"

For a moment, Alex pondered on this information, his thoughts swirling around the theories that the two had devised and shared with one another whilst this new information added a whole new list of troubles. He had SO many questions right now, but the only way to get them would be to go to this 'Lid' character and ask her directly. Still, one question did seem like it could be something he could ask Noire, despite it being unanswerable save for anyone other than Lid herself. "... you think SHE could be the one behind Resta's injuries? It WAS stated that Generals have their own agendas, and after everything that's been going on I'd say that infighting would be happening much more often."

"Yeah… you're right on that one… still, the situation has changed, and as much as I had expected this kind of thing, seeing it with my own eyes… it still hurts…" Noire responded, her eyes darkening as sadness started taking hold of her. No matter how cold she may appear to be on the outside, internally she felt just as emotional as any girl her physical age, and who could blame her either? Since all her hard work felt like it had just gone down the drain seeing all this chaos and carnage… plus, with the ominous situation surrounding the mystery of Alex's powers, she had the horrible feeling that this would only be the beginning.

Seeing this look on her face did NOT soothe any of the guilt inside Alex much, if anything he felt worse. After all, he knew for a FACT just how passionate and driven Noire had been, he'd seen it in her daily activities and how she tended to treat her subjects. Her passion for her dreams and goals, out of all four CPUs of whom he'd met so far, easily had been the highest and she seemed to do the most in regards to chasing them. She seemed way different from someone like him, in both scale and ability, so seeing her down like this… Alex could hardly even BEGIN to imagine the kinds of feelings surging through her chest right now. "...Apologies, Lady Noire…"

At that moment, Alex thoroughly HATED how pathetic and powerless that sounded, since it pretty much felt like a half-assed one at the moment. He wanted to do more, to be able to try and at LEAST perform better so that he could at least ease the pressure off her a little, but right now with his powers still shrouded in secrecy, Alex could hardly exercise them to their fullest potential. Plus, he was part of a party which most of them hardly knew a THING about his condition. They'd eventually find out if Noire started sending him out on Missions which a Secretary was NOT supposed to do in order to further their goals. Still, as he looked towards her with the feeling of his apology not really serving much purpose, Noire still aimed a small but thankful smile in his direction, though it didn't reach her sadness-filled eyes. Eyes which he knew for a FACT "Thanks, Alex… anyways, let's go take a break. I can still sense Neptune's presence in this city, so we'll find her and take things from there. Perhaps during this time we can get some requests done for the People back home..."

Hearing that, the boy blinked owlishly a few times as his brain processed what he had just heard, before it clicked into place within his brain. Ah yeah, that's right. Alex quickly remembered one of his duties as her Secretary was to help Noire deal with the various requests she would get personally from her subjects. According to her, it had been a system she herself had devised as a way to show her people that they could be open with her and communicate without fear of retribution or discrimination. This system had been built up because of how she had often received reports about the Basilicom being 'too stuffy' as some of the senders had put it, and also at the time the City's population had been so large that the Basilicom couldn't hold in the number of visitors wanting to see her, so Noire had this system established. One which stacked on top of her OTHER duties as CPU of Lastation at that, which made Alex wonder on just what kind of coffee she could have been using to get all that work done on a daily basis.

Must have been HELL for the coffee bean suppliers.

"Sure, let's go with that. I'll do my best with those requests too, Lady Noire…!"

"Hmph, of course you will, it's only a given since you're one of MY subordinates, Secretary!"


End file.
